Some US Olympians enlist in order to make it to the Games

By LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writer ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — Nordic combined is a niche sport, even athletes in the discipline acknowledge, leaving Olympians who participate in the mix of ski jumping and cross-country skiing searching for options to fund their dreams. Unlike some ...

Snowboard forefather Burton gone, not forgotten at Olympics

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — In one way, these Olympics have been just like any of the last six. It was impossible to miss the name "Burton" flying over the halfpipe. Only at this one, the man who built the board, then stamped his name on the bottom of ...

Shiffrin relieved to finish Olympic race; 9th in super-G

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP National Writer BEIJING (AP) — Laying in bed ahead of her third race of the Beijing Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin could not stop dreaming about what awaited, envisioning a sequence that unfolded like her initial two over-in-a-blink events. "Just repetitive. The ...

Narracott on cusp of Australia’s 1st Olympic sliding medal

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer BEIJING (AP) — The last time Australia won an Olympic medal in a sliding sport? That would be never. Never even been close, with the country's best result in any bobsled, skeleton or luge race being a 10th-place showing in 2010. Jaclyn Narracott is ...

Finland’s Niskanen wins gold in Olympic classic ski 15K race

By MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — The Russian athletes out-skied Iivo Niskanen of Finland in the opening cross-country ski race of the Beijing Olympics, but the Finn took control of the 15-kilometer cross-country race and proved his dominance in classic ...

US women survive scare, beat Czechs 4-1 in Olympic hockey

By JOHN WAWROW AP Hockey Writer BEIJING (AP) — Once the sense of relief subsided following an all-too-tense quarterfinal victory for the defending Olympic women's hockey champions, United States coach Joel Johnson's focus turned to just how far other countries have come. In a ...