Winter Olympics 2006: Daily Highlights

The XX Winter Olympics opens. The Olympic flag is carried in by an all-woman crew, including Sophia Loren, Susan Sarandon, Isabel Allende, and Wangari Maathai.

Americans Rena Inoue and John Baldwin make Olympics history when they successfully complete a thrown triple axel in the short program of the pairs figure skating competition.

American speed skater Chad Hedrick wins the 5000 m event. An enormously successful inline skater, Hedrick only began speed skating in 2002.

American Michelle Kwan drops out of the Olympics after she reinjures her hip during training. Alternate Emily Hughes, whose big sister Sarah won the gold over Kwan in 2002, will now compete in the Torino Games.

American Lindsey Kildow, French Carole Montillet-Carles, and Canadian Allison Forsyth all take spectacular falls during their alpine training runs. The women are rushed to the hospital and were later released.

American Apolo Ohno falls in the 1500 m short track prelims, losing a chance to repeat his 2002 gold medal performance.

American speed skater Joey Cheek announces he will donate his $25,000 gold medal award from the U.S. Olympic Committee to child refugees from Darfur, Sudan, and encourages Olympic sponsors to do the same.

Favorite Shaun White, aka the Flying Tomato, wins in the second appearance of snowboarding's half-pipe competition.

Favorites Bode Miller (U.S.) and Ben Raich (Austria) are disqualified when they straddle gates during the slalom section of the men's alpine combined. American Ted Ligety surprises the crowd by winning the men's alpine combined.

Russian Evgeni Plushenko gains a ten point lead in men's figure skating.

Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva is expelled from the Games after testing positive for carphedon. She relinquishes the silver medal she received in the 15 km and denies knowingly using the substance.

Hilde Pedersen, 41, becomes the oldest woman to win a medal at an Olympic Winter Games. The Norwegian took the bronze in the women's 10 km classical cross-country race.

Russian Evgeni Plushenko wins men's figure skating by more than 27 points.

American Lindsey Jacobellis showboats her way out of a gold medal in the women’s snowboard cross competition. She takes silver while Swiss Tanja Frieden takes advantage of Lindsey’s bobble and grabs the gold.

Canadian Duff Gibson, 39, becomes the oldest Winter Olympian to win gold when he bests his competition in men's skeleton.

American speedskater Shani Davis becomes the first African American to win an individual gold medal in the Winter Games when he raced to victory in the 1000 m.

Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt (age 34) wins an Olympic gold in alpine skiing's Super G—for the third time. The five-time Olympian first won the gold 14 years ago at the 1992 Albertville Games! He is the winningest alpine skier ever, with eight medals.

Croatia's Janica Kostelic becomes the first women to win four golds in alpine skiing with her success in the Ladies Combined. She won her other three at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Former Jamaican bobsledder Lascelles Brown races to a silver medal for Canada in the two-man bobsleigh with Pierre Lueders. Brown received Canadian citizenship about a month ago.

France's Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin is fined $3,800 for giving the "bird" to race offials after having to redo his super-G race due to bad weather.

American super star Bode Miller misses his fourth opportunity to win a medal when he tied for sixth in alpine skiing's Giant Slalom. He has one more chance when he races in the Slalom on Saturday.

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto win the first medal, a silver, for the U.S. in ice dancing in 30 years. Born in Canada, Belbin became a U.S. citizen less than two months ago.

Italian speed skater Enrico Fabris delights the crowd by winning a gold medal in the 1500 m ahead of American rivals Shani Davis, the winner of the 1000 m, and Chad Hedrick, the winner of the 5000 m and the 1500 m world record holder. Fabris, who also received a bronze in the 5000 m and a gold in the men's team pursuit, is the only Italian male athlete in history to medal three times in one Olympics.

Australia's Jacqui Cooper sets a world record in the women's aerials with her qualifying score of 213.36 points. Among other feats, she completed a triple-twisting jump. The finals for the event take place on Wednesday.

American figure skater Sasha Cohen performed a flawless short program that put her in the lead, but only by three hundreths of a point, over gold medal favorite, Russia's Irina Slutskaya. The long program takes place on Thursday.

Swiss brothers Philipp and Simon Schoch win the gold and silver, respectively, in snowboard's Parallel Giant Slalom. Younger brother Philipp also won the gold at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Korean speed skaters continue their lock on the women's 3000 m relay by winning the race for the fourth Olympics in a row. China was disqualified, pushing the Italian women into third, to the delight of the crowd. The Italian bronze was the 100th Winter Olympics medal won by that country. Canada got the silver.

American speed skater Shani Davis announces he will not compete in the 10,000 m. Davis earned a gold and silver while competing in the 2006 Winter Games.

China's Han Xiaopeng wins his country's first Olympic gold medal on snow when he bested the field in men's freestyle skiing aerials.

The Swedes win women's curling. They are the first curling team to ever hold Olympic, world, and European titles at the same time.

Japan's Shizuka Arakawa wins her country's first medal of the Torino Games when she won the Ladies's competition in figure skating.

Julia Mancuso wins the first alpine skiing medal in Torino for the U.S. women, when she raced in the Giant Slalom. This is the first U.S. women's Olympic medal since Picabo Stret won the Super G and silvered in the downhill in the 1998 Nagano Games. Finn Tanja Poutiainen, earns the first medal in alpine skiing for her country when she takes silver in the Giant Slalom.

The United States wins its first men's curling medal when it takes the bronze over the United Kingdom. Canada gest the gold and Finland gets the silver.

Germany makes it a clean sweep of the bobsleigh events when its four-man sled takes the gold.

The Austrian men sweep the slalom.

American speed skater Apolo Ohno robs the Koreans of a sweep in men's short track when he wins the 500 m. The Koreans answer back a few hours later by winning the 5000 m relay. The Americans get the bronze behind Canada.

Italian Giorgio di Centa wins the men's 50-km freestyle race by only eight tenths of a second. This is the closest victory in the history of the Olympic event.

The closing ceremonies draw 800,000 fans. A huge party tent sponsored by Budweiser and Sports Illustrated draws such stars as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Sasha Cohen.