OLYMPICS NOTEBOOK
TURIN, Italy – After reading headlines about misbehaving U.S. athletes for the past two weeks, the United States Olympic Committee leadership vowed to make changes before the next Games.
“This team has taken a hit in terms of its comportment here in Italy because of a couple of incidents involving some high-profile athletes,” said Jim Scherr, chief executive officer of the USOC.
The U.S. team has been embarrassed by stories of Bode Miller partying until all hours in the mountains and speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis feuding. Then, Friday, freestyle skier Jeret “Speedy” Peterson was sent home after getting into an altercation with an acquaintance from the United States.
“It’s unfortunate that a few colored the rest of the delegation,” Scherr said. “We will be making some significant adjustments going into Beijing and Vancouver.”
When asked to elaborate, Scherr said the USOC would do a better job talking to athletes, coaches and governing bodies about what is expected of them and remind them they are representing their country.
“Coming out of these Games we will do a better job as an Olympic Committee to monitor those situations and make sure that both of those edicts are followed to a higher degree,” he said.
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Two days after winning a disappointing silver medal, Sasha Cohen said she hopes this was not her last Olympics.
“I definitely love competing and I think I’ve gotten better,” Cohen said yesterday. “If I can continue to improve and physically be able to do it, I love the Olympics. I definitely would want to be part of it again.”
Cohen has said that several nagging injuries hampered her training for these Games, so it is questionable whether she’ll able to compete in four years. The 21-year-old Californian was in first place after the short program but fell in her free skate, allowing Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa to win gold.
“An Olympic medal is a huge accomplishment in itself but I was definitely disappointed in my skate,” Cohen said. “There will be some painful thoughts for a while.”
Cohen has seen replays of her fall during TV interviews over the past two days. She fell on her first jump and stumbled on her second before recovering to skate a strong program.
“That was hard for me, but I look to the good,” Cohen said. “For me, it took so much courage to come back from that. That’s something I’m really proud of. I went into it in a good state and gave it my all. From that point of view, I’m proud of myself.”
Cohen said she is planning to compete in next month’s world championships in Calgary.
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American bobsledder Todd Hays finished seventh in his final race. The 2002 silver medalist announced Friday that yesterday would be his last race. His sled included New Jersey’s Pavle Jovanovic.
Yesterday’s Medalists
ALPINE SKIING
Men’s Slalom
GOLD: Benjamin Raich, Austria
SILVER: Reinfried Herbst, Austria
BRONZE: Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria
BIATHLON
Men’s 15km (mass start)
GOLD: Michael Greis, Germany
SILVER: Tomasz Sikora, Poland
BRONZE: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Norway
Women’s 12.5km (mass start)
GOLD: Anna Carin Olofsson, Sweden
SILVER: Kati Wilhelm, Germany
BRONZE: Uschi Disl, Germany
BOBSLEIGH
Men’s Four
GOLD: Germany 1
SILVER: Russia 1
BRONZE: Switzerland 1
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Men’s 500
GOLD: Apolo Anton Ohno, Seattle
SILVER: Francois-Louis Tremblay, Canada
BRONZE: Ahn Hyun-soo, South Korea
Men’s 5,000 Relay
GOLD: South Korea
SILVER: Canada
BRONZE: United States (Rusty Smith, Long Beach, Calif.; Apolo Anton Ohno, Seattle; Alex Izykowski, Bay City, Mich.; J.P. Kepka, St. Louis)
Women’s 1,000
GOLD: Jin Sun-yu, South Korea
SILVER: Wang Meng, China
BRONZE: Yang Yang, China
SPEED SKATING
Women’s 5,000
GOLD: Clara Hughes, Canada
SILVER: Claudia Pechstein, Germany
BRONZE: Cindy Klassen, Canada
