Olympics

Results of the election to the IOC Athletes’ Commission Beckie Scott (Canada, Cross-country skiing) and Saku Koivu (Finland, Ice Hockey) are the two new members who have been elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission by their peers at the Turin Olympic Games, for a term of eight years. Beckie Scott was elected with 449 Votes, followed by Saku Koivu with 412 votes. The announcement was made today by Anita L. DeFrantz, Chairwoman of the Election...

The final women's race at the 2006 Olympics, the 30km mass-start skate, was expected to be a battle between Russia's Julija Tchepalova and Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic. That's exactly what happened this morning, with the gold being decided by just over a second after more than an hour and 20 minutes of racing. Rebecca Dussault Results:

Pictures from Sharbel Dussault of the Olympic Individual Sprints on Wednesday Feb 22.

The NENSA website has a video of Andrew Newell's Olympic Quarterfinal. Its about a 2 minute clip, but its 18 megabytes, so make sure you have a fast connection.

Below is a link to an article by Canadian Television company CBC, with photos and post-race comments from A-Finalists Chandra Crawford and Beckie Scott. http://www.nbcolympics.com/crosscountry/5125982/detail.html http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/photogallery/gallery_191_1.html And to top it off, a feature article on the official olympic site on Chandra's big win:

Andrew Newell of the U.S. Ski Team posted a phenomenal 2nd-place time in the individual qualification round of the men's Olympic sprint race earlier today, before struggling somewhat in the quarterfinals to finish 16th overall. His rank in the qualifiying run tied teammate Torin Koos' recent record for the best-ever US finish (or North American male for that matter) in a World Cup or Olympic sprint qualification. Koos Koos, who is coming off of recent...

Beckie Scott Wins Prelim, Three XC Skiers Advance to Sprint Quarterfinals US cross Country skier Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) qualified second in the qualification round of the men's cross country sprint race from Pragelato to advance to the quarterfinals later today. Newell finished in a time of 2:14.79, finishing just behind the qualification winner Bjoern Lind of Sweden. Joining Newell in that quarterfinal will be Chris Cook (Rhinelander, Wis.) who finished 16th in a time...

American Best Performances By Randall, Newell It was a banner day for North America at the Olympic Individual Sprint races. Canadian Chandra Crawford shocked the world by winning the gold medal in the event, besting the top sprinters in the World. Beckie Scott, just missed out on her second medal of these games finishing fourth in the A Final. Kikkan Randall finished 9th, the first Olympic top ten finish ever for an American female cross...

Links to some recent FasterSkier.com articles about newly-minted Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford of Canada. Chandra Crawford: – I'm planning to go to the Olympics performance-focused By Torbjorn Karlsen, Thu Feb 02, 2006 Canadian Chandra Crawford was 8th in the recent Oberstdorf World Cup classic sprint. She is now racing at the U-23 Worlds and we got a chance to ask her about training, Worlds and the upcoming Olympics. http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3048.html Chandra Crawford Talks About Last Season,...

Canada's Crawford wins gold in sprint Chandra Crawford upstaged two of her better-known countrywomen and pulled off an upset in the women's 1.1km sprint Wednesday, skating across the finish for Canada's first cross-country gold medal of the Torino Games. Crawford, with tiny pigtails peeking out of her hat and a huge smile on her face, is hardly her country's biggest star — previously staying out of the spotlight behind Beckie Scott and Sara Renner, silver...

PRAGELATO, Italy (Feb. 22) – American Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) made history Wednesday as she was ninth in the Olympic cross country sprint, the best all-time Olympic finish by any U.S. woman. Canadian Chandra Crawford won the gold and was followed by silver medalist Claudia Kuenzel of Germany and bronze winner Alena Sidko of Russia. Canadian Beckie Scott was fourth. Other U.S. finishes today included Wendy Wagner (Park City, UT) in 35th and Lindsay Williams...

Source: Cross Country Canada It was a good effort by the Canadian men in sprint qualifying this morning, but a quarter second of speed made the difference as Drew Goldsack and Sean Crooks just missed advancing to the knockout round at Pragelato. The fastest qualifier was Sweden's Bjorn Lind and Andy Newll from the US continued with his strong sprint preformances with a second place qualifying performance. It was heartbreak for the Canadians as Drew...

Photos from the women's Olympic relay on Saturday. Kikkan Randall

Editor's Note: At the time of this writing, the French had just filed a complaint that a Swedish racer allegedly took the wrong track but didn't retrace his steps and continued to take the most direct route unlike Frenchamn Jonnier who did retrace his steps after skiing off the course on the third leg of the relay. If by chance the Swedish racer is disqualified the French team could jump into Bronze position. The results...

USA Men's Relay Team 12th PRAGELATO, Italy (Feb. 19) — Italy gave the home country fans something to cheer about in Pragelato, winning the men's 4 x 10-km cross country relay. The USA was 12th, a disappointment after finishing fifth in 2002. The Italians took gold by 15.7 seconds over Germany, with Sweden taking bronze. The USA started strong with Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) skiing strong in the first pack, only 10.8 seconds off the...

The Russian team of Baranova, Tcheopalova, Medvedeva and Kurkina claim gold in Saturday's 4x5km Olympic relay. Baranova and Kurkina seemed to struggle in the classic legs, but they held on just long enough so that skaters Tchepalova and Medvedeva could inflict the decisive damage. Medvedeva had a superb final leg, taking it to the line for gold. The Canadian team's bright spot was Sara Renner's skiing on the second leg. But overall they likely were...

Sharbel Dussault keeps the hits coming with another batch of great pictures from the Olympic 15K race.

A huge thanks to Sharbel Dussault for these great photos of the opening cross country race of the 2006 Olympics. Women's start Hilde Pedersen (5) Dussault, Weier Smigun looking strong Rebecca Dussault

More incredible shots of the action in Pragelato Plan from Sharbel Dussault. Thanks to Sharbel for taking such great pictures and sharing them with all of us. Marit Bjoergen Chris Cook

Veerpalu repeats, Freeman finishes 22nd as top North American Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia successfully defended his Olympic Gold Medal from 2002 in the 15K classic race. The race was held in a heavy snowfall at about 30 degrees F, which made waxing extremely difficult. Even the teams with many wax technicians, such as the Norwegians, did not fair well in the driving snow. Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic earned silver, edging out current World...