Figure skating

Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the original dance Sunday with a sultry, sizzling flamenco that reduced the uproar over the Russians' Aboriginal routine to background noise. Virtue and Moir, medalists at the last two world championships, scored 68.41 points for their OD and lead Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White by 2.60 points going into Monday night's free dance.

Reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the focus of all the attention before the OD and leaders after the compulsory dance, dropped to third. Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are fourth.

Half the intrigue of ice dance is all the off-ice drama, and Domnina and Shabalin were the clear winners coming into these games. The theme for this year's original dance is country/folk, and the Russians angered folks from Australia to Canada with their Aboriginal-themed routine and costumes. Some Australian Aboriginal leaders called it offensive cultural theft, with inauthentic steps and gaudy costumes. Canada's Four Host First Nations expressed concern, too, and actually met with Domnina and Shabalin after they arrived last week.

But as the standings showed, this is an athletic competition, not a wardrobe war.

Men's freestyle skiing

The Olympic debut of skicross began with America's grizzled old veteran landing hard on his back and ended with one of Canada's newest favorites tumbling uncontrollably through the powder.

When all the bumping and crashing was over, Michael Schmid of Switzerland was still standing - the first Olympic gold medalist in a sport that entertains the fans as much as it hurts the skiers.

Schmid easily outpaced Austria's Andreas Matt and Norway's Audun Groenvold in the final, while Chris Del Bosco, a Colorado resident who competes for Canada, let third place slip when he got too aggressive on the next-to-last jump and went flailing, then falling out of contention.

Much earlier, American Daron Rahlves lost any chance for the medal that has eluded him in three previous Olympics in Alpine.

One of the United States' most decorated downhillers, the 36-year-old Rahlves collided with France's Ted Piccard and landed hard on his back in the day's opening race. He got up, skied to the finish, then writhed in pain at the bottom - a painful end to both his day, and his career.

"That's it for me," he said.

Women's curling

Fighting back tears, the skip of the U.S. women's team knew it was time to make a change.

Debbie McCormick pulled herself out of the fourth position S and was set to throw third stone for a night match against defending champion Sweden. Coach Wally Henry, McCormick's father, confirmed the move after a team meeting following a 9-2 loss to Canada in a morning game.

Henry is McCormick's longtime coach and they have always worked hard to keep their personal relationship off the ice. He said McCormick's teammates embraced her team-first gesture, and he thinks it will take some pressure off the three-time Olympian until she gets her feel again.

"She's disappointed and we feel strongly she will pull out of it," Henry said. "She's been struggling all week with her draw weight. We're working on the draw weight. It just seems to leave her at the wrong time."

Men's curling

The U.S. men's Olympic curling run is all but over.

Scottish skip David Murdoch's British team handed the foursome a 4-2 loss. That dropped the Americans to 2-5, practically assuring their elimination from semifinal contention.

Murdoch's world champion team is 4-3. It bounced back from a tough loss to Canada a night earlier and pulled out a big win to boost its playoff chances.

The Americans went ahead with a point in the second. Murdoch then scored a go-ahead deuce in the fifth before stealing one in the sixth when Jason Smith had last stone. Smith picked up a point in the eighth.

Men's bobsled

Germany's Andre Lange won the Olympic two-man bobsled, his record fourth gold medal.

Lange and longtime brakeman Kevin Kuske completed their four runs on the Whistler Sliding Center's tough and technical track in 3 minutes, 26.65 seconds. Germany's Thomas Florschuetz finished second in 3:26.87 to win silver, and Russia's Alexsandr Zubkov took the bronze in 3:27.51.

Lange, the defending Olympic champion in two- and four-man, surpassed Germany's Meinhard Nehmer for the most bobsled golds. Lange also won the four-man event at the Salt Lake Games in 2002.

Steve Holcomb of the United States was sixth.

Men's hockey

Evgeni Malkin scored twice and Russia bounced back from a shootout loss to Slovakia, beating the Czech Republic 4-2 to reach the quarterfinals.

In a rematch of the 1998 Olympic gold-medal game, won 1-0 by the Czechs, Russia scored in every period to claim the top spot in Group B with seven points.

Women's speedskating

Coasting along in the practice lane, Ireen Wust realized she had another gold while the last two skaters were still on the track.

The Dutch woman pumped both arms toward the roof of the Richmond Olympic Oval, while a stunned home crowd watched favorite Christine Nesbitt labor across the finish line.

With an astonishing final lap, Wust answered all those who questioned her success four years ago by winning gold in the 1,500 meters.

Women's biathlon

Magdalena Neuner of Germany overcame two missed shots to win the women's 12.5-kilometer mass start biathlon race for her second gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics.

Neuner pulled away from her rivals after the final shooting and had time to start celebrating as she crossed a short bridge leading into the stadium, pumping her fist to salute the German fans. She finished in 35 minutes, 19.6 seconds. Olga Zaitseva of Russia took the silver medal after finishing 5.5 seconds behind. Simone Hauswald of Germany won bronze, 7.3 seconds back.

Neuner, who won the 10K pursuit on Tuesday and took silver in the 7.5K sprint, trailed by as much as 29 seconds after missing two targets in the first three shootings. But she pushed the pace and was only 7 seconds behind Zaitseva after a clean shoot in the final standing position.

Men's biathlon

Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov finally won a medal, capturing the men's 15-kilometer mass start biathlon race.

The World Cup leader shot cleanly to finish in 35 minutes, 35.7 seconds, beating Martin Fourcade of France by 10.5 seconds. Pavol Hurajt of Slovakia won the bronze, finishing 16.6 seconds behind Ustyugov.

Tim Burke, hoping to make a biathlon breakthrough at the Olympics for the United States, finished 18th. Fourcade took the silver despite missing three targets, including two on the first, prone shoot and one on the final, standing shoot. Like Ustyugov, Hurajt hit all 20 targets.