Bode Comes Close, But Still No Medal
All eyes are on Austria in Turin, both on and off the slopes.
Austria finally got its Olympic gold medal in men's Alpine skiing at this year's Winter Games. And it wasn't Hermann Maier that won it.
Benjamin Raich, the overall World Cup leader, won the giant slalom with a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 35.00 seconds Monday to give the Austrian men's team a gold medal in the next-to-last Alpine event.
Four Austrian biathletes who were rousted over the weekend and tested for doping returned to training Monday for the first time since police raided their residence.
Austria's entry in the men's 4x7.5km relay, scheduled for Tuesday, won't include Wolfgang Perner or Wolfgang Rottmann, who were kicked off the team after leaving the Olympics following the midnight raids.
Perner had recorded Austria's highest Nordic finish at these games, taking fourth in the 10km sprint last week.
American Bode Miller, who was just 12th after the opening leg, tied for sixth with Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, after a red-hot second run. Coaches had been worried about Miller's stamina going into the race.
It seems that American skiers can't get anywhere near a medal CBS News' Manuel Gallegus reports. But Monday, Bode Miller was as close as he's ever been — but it wasn't close enough to touch even the bronze.
Miller's run down the icy Alpine course was icy and the competition fierce. And the country boy touted as America's best shot a skiing gold just couldn't deliver, Gallegus reports.
It was the fourth loss of a medal for Miller, who has been getting a bad rap in the Italian press, which says he spends more time partying up here in the mountains than focusing on his sport. Miller's autograph is on the wall of a mountain night club, where he likes to hang out, as evidenced by the shots in the morning papers. But Miller hasn't bothered to explain his behavior — on or off the slopes — to the press.
The Austrian and American teams came into the Olympics as the best in the world, but the rivalry has flopped as neither has lived up to expectations.
The Austrian women have one gold — Michaela Dorfmeister in the women's downhill — while Ted Ligety gave the United States gold in the combined. Maier also won silver in the super-G, while Michael Walchhofer won sliver in the downhill, Rainer Schoenfelder took bronze in the combined and Marlies Schild won silver in the women's combined.
The last men's race, the slalom, is scheduled for Saturday.
In related developments:
Check the schedule of upcoming events.
Track the current medal count here.
Maier, who won the giant slalom at his last Olympics in 1998 at the Nagano Games, took bronze, finishing .16 behind his teammate. Joel Chenal of France got silver, .07 seconds slower than Raich.
Raich, who won the last two World Cup giant slalom races before the games, was fifth after the opening leg but won the gold with a brilliant second effort.
Later Monday, the women were to race in the weather-delayed super-G, while there were other medals to be won in ice dancing, women's ice hockey and team ski jumping.
Two-time world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia lead the ice dance heading into the free program. Defending champion Canada faces surprise finalist Sweden in the hockey final, while the United States takes on Finland for the bonze.
In women's curling, Norway clinched a spot in the medal round with an 8-1 win over Denmark — a match the Danes conceded after only six ends.
Also in the morning session, Japan and Russia kept their medal hopes alive, beating Italy and Sweden by identical 6-4 scores.
Women's curling continued Monday night, while the men played in the afternoon.
The suspected doping scandal involving the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams took a bizarre twist early Monday.
Banned coach Walter Mayer left behind a tangle of trouble Mayer when he bolted the Turin Games after a doping raid on his team. He made it across the Italian border — then ran into a whole lot more. He was released by authorities in Vienna, Austria, early Monday, sporting cuts and scratches on his right temple that he received in a car accident.
Mayer crashed into a police roadblock 15 miles into Austria and was taken into custody Sunday.
Within hours, Austrian ski officials said they had severed all ties with the coach, whose presence at the Winter Olympics touched off an unprecedented show of force at the games because of his link to suspected blood doping.
Prosecutor Gottfried Kranz told The Associated Press a preliminary investigation had been formally launched that could lead to charges of evading arrest and causing bodily harm to a police officer.
And Turin's chief prosecutor, Marcello Maddalena, confirmed Monday that Mayer was under investigation for possible violation of Italy's anti-doping laws. Authorities would not seek his arrest, he said.
On Sunday, Italy won its third gold medal and the Dutch speedskating fans cheered Marianne Timmer to gold in the women's 1,000 meters — repeating her winning performance from eight years ago.
Italy's win came from its men's cross-country team, which rallied to beat the Germans and the Swedes in the 4x10-kilometer relay.