Shen/Zhao search for pairs gold:
Returning from a two-year layoff for one last run at that elusive Olympic gold medal, the Chinese have been simply brilliant this year. They've won each of their competitions by huge margins. The Grand Prix final had the most stacked field outside of the Olympics, and Shen and Zhao blew away the field by a dozen points.
Their practices here have been masterful -- seeing them is better than watching some others compete. Their athleticism, always their strength, hasn't dropped off at all despite being in their 30s, ancient for pairs skaters. But they're also wonderfully expressive and emotional, a big change from a couple whose faces used to look like blank slates.
Colas, Begg-Smith move easily into moguls final:
WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Guilbaut Colas of France has the best score in men's Olympic moguls qualifying, finishing three spots ahead of favorite Dale Begg-Smith of Australia.
Colas scored 25.93 points Sunday to beat out Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau and Bryon Wilson of the United States. Scores are reset for Sunday evening's finals, where the top 20 qualifiers, including Sweden's second-ranked Jesper Bjoernlund, will compete.
Begg-Smith bobbled slightly after his second jump and is seeking an Olympic repeat. He is from Vancouver and competes for his adopted country of Australia.
Bilodeau is ranked fourth in the world and is still a candidate to win Canada's first Olympic gold of the games.
Vonn's shin passes test of slalom training session:
According to her husband, the two-time overall World Cup champion is no longer worrying about whether she will be able to compete at the Vancouver Olympics. Instead, she's thinking about how best to prepare for pursuing medals.
"She definitely wants to get out there and get going," said Thomas Vonn, who serves as a coach and chief adviser to his wife. "Her focus has definitely changed from, 'Am I going to race?' to 'I'm definitely racing, and I need to get the rust off and try to get the speed back."'
Lindsey Vonn had not done any full-fledged training on a hill since hurting herself on Feb. 2, when she tumbled and slammed the top of her right boot against her leg during pre-Olympic practice in Austria.
She stayed off skis for more than a week -- for a few days, it was tough even to walk -- then has been forced to wait along with everyone else while wet and warm weather canceled one official training session after another in Whistler.
The first women's Alpine race at the Winter Games originally was supposed to be a super-combined Sunday, but that event was pushed back to Thursday because of the delays. Now the women aren't slated to race until Wednesday's downhill.
Organizers have scheduled an unusual, split women's downhill training run for Monday, bookending it around the men's downhill medal race. Women will ski the top part of their course in the morning, before the men race, then cover the bottom portion afterward -- weather permitting, of course.
Thomas Vonn said all the forced rest can be credited with helping his wife's shin feel "better and better every day," prompting Sunday's trip to the mountain. She set out first for a casual, free ski, and when that went well, decided to do more spirited training. All told, they were on the slopes for about 2 1/2 hours.
Spillane wins Olympic silver in Nordic combi:
Italy's Alessandro Pittin won the bronze, finishing eight-tenths of a second behind Chappuis and just ahead of American Todd Lodwick
Spillane and Lodwick, both of Steamboat Springs, Colo., took turns leading the way for much of the race. Spillane looked to have an insurmountable lead as he made his final turn, but Chappuis beat him to the line to win the event, which features one jump on the normal hill and a 10-kilometer cross-country race.
As Spillane was taking his final few strides, Chappuis surged past him using shorter strides. As he swept past, Spillane titled his head to his right just in time to watch the gold medal slip from his grasp.
"I just went for it," Chappuis said. "Johnny was pretty good. I just tried to catch him. It was good to have a view in front of me and a goal to catch him."
Spillane was satisfied with silver.
"At that point, I was just happy there was no one else going me," Spillane said. "I was really tired."
Lodwick, the reigning world champion, started in second place behind Finland's Janne Ryynaenen, who had the longest jump of the day. Spillane started in fourth, 44 seconds behind Ryynaenen and Chappuis in fifth, 46 seconds behind the leader.
Bill Demong
Chappuis, the son of a French father and American mother, is close with the American team. The French team went to Park City, Utah, for a pre-Olympic training camp with the Americans before flying to the Vancouver Games.
Once hopelessly behind the Germans, Austrians, Russians, Norwegians and Finns, the U.S. Nordic combined ski team is now one of the world's powers following their domination of last year's world championships and Spillane's silver medal Sunday.
Winds swept through Whistler Olympic Park just as the World Cup heavyweights were about to jump down the normal hill, keeping distances down and pushing some of the best skiers to the back of the pack.
Norway's Magnus Moan
One jumper who did just fine was Chappuis, the World Cup leader, who jumped last but managed the fifth-best result, just close enough to the leaders to give him a chance to win.
Niyaz Nabeev of Russia was barred from competing in the race after tests before the Olympics detected too-high hemoglobin levels.
MORE INFORMATION AT:
nbcolympics.com
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