SKELETON: U.S. EMPTY-HANDED IN THE END CANADA SAILS BY, WINNING GOLD AND SILVER.Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer CESANA, Italy - Started bad, ended bad. At least you have to give the U.S. skeleton team credit for its consistency. Meanwhile, give Canada enormous credit for having the finest skeleton team in the world. Canada, which will host the next Winter Games
Duff Gibson Duff Gibson (born on August 11, 1966 in Vaughan, Ontario) is a Canadian skeleton racer who competed from 1999 to 2006. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, He won the gold medal in the men's skeleton, narrowly beating out his teammate Jeff Pain. , 39, a firefighter from a family of Olympians, became the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history by blazing down the icy course in a track record of 1:55.88. Jeff Pain Jeff Pain (born on December 14, 1970 in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American-born, Canadian skeleton racer who has competed since 1995. He is regarded as the most successful male competitors in the history of the Canadian skeleton program. took the silver for Canada, while Switzerland's Gregor Staehli won the bronze. Gibson now plans to retire from sledding. ``I think it's a pretty well known fact that I'm not the youngest guy in this sport,'' Gibson said. ``The most important thing is to go out on top.'' That's where the U.S. was at the last Olympics, when Jim Shea took the gold in skeleton's return to the Winter Games at Salt Lake City. That U.S. team won three skeleton medals, but this edition came in embarrassed by very public trouble and left without a single medal. It lost its coach to a sexual harassment sexual harassment, in law, verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, aimed at a particular person or group of people, especially in the workplace or in academic or other institutional settings, that is actionable, as in tort or under equal-opportunity statutes. scandal. Its No.1 racer, Zach Lund Zach Lund (born March 22, 1979) is an American skeleton racer who has competed since 2000. He won a bronze medal in the men's skeleton event at the 2007 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz. , was banned for using a substance in a hair restoration product. It qualified only one woman. It was not exactly on a roll. Then Friday, its three sliders sliders a species of tortoise kept as pets. They have a black shell and a red stripe behind the eye. Called also Chrysemys scripta elegans, red-eared sliders. were competitive no-shows. Eric Bernotas (sixth), Kevin Ellis (17th) and Chris Soule (27th) - a late replacement for Lund - couldn't get near the podium. In Soule's two runs, he was unable to slide faster than racers from Bermuda, Ireland and Australia - those real giants of winter sports. ``I can't figure out which run was worse,'' Soule said. ``I tried my best. I'm really proud to be here.'' Canada was having no such troubles. The Canadians owned the 19-curve course. They also received a bronze from Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards. It made for an Olympics to remember, particularly for the retiring Gibson. ``That was it,'' Gibson said. ``Those are my last two runs.'' Canada came close to a sweep, with Paul Boehm finishing fourth. ``We actually talked about going 1-2-3,'' Boehm said. ``That was the ultimate goal. We almost got it.'' Gibson's father was on Canada's national judo judo (j  `dō), sport of Japanese origin that makes use of the principles of jujitsu, a weaponless system of self-defense. team and his uncle was an Olympic rower. His wife, Jennifer, was ready to celebrate his victory and competitive retirement. ``I'm not happy, I'm ecstatic,'' she said. ``Now it is finished and he's done it.'' The previous oldest individual gold medal winner was Norway's Magnar Solberg, who was 35 when he won the 20-kilometer biathlon biathlon (bīăth`lŏn), sport in which cross-country skiers race across hilly terrain, occasionally stopping to shoot with rifles at sets of fixed targets. The biathlon features the 10-km (6. at the Sapporo (Japan) Games in 1972. Steve Dilbeck, (818) 713-3607 stephen.dilbeck(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: GIBSON |
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