Time to bow out

Tomba, Canadian hockey, U.S. sledders go quietly

Posted: Sat February 21, 1998 at 11:26 AM ET

Ville Peltonen's goal 17 seconds into the third period ended Canada's hopes at an Olympic medal Brian Bahr/Allsport

NAGANO, Japan (CNN/SI) - An earthquake shook buildings in Nagano, but tremors of a different sort were felt Saturday at the Olympics.

Alberto Tomba, "La Bomba" to his legions of admirers throughout the world, bombed out in the men's slalom Saturday in his final chance at an Olympic medal.

It was a sad and strange ending for one of the Games' most colorful stars.

But Saturday, one day before the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Tomba was not alone in his failure.

The Canadian hockey team, one-time gold medal favorites stocked with players from the National Hockey League and featuring the greatest scorer of all time, will head home without a medal after losing to Finland 3-2 in the bronze medal game.

The United States, meanwhile, appeared virtually certain to end this Olympics the same as the last -- with 13 medals. Hopes for a country-best 14 winter medals were dashed when the U.S. four-man bobsled team finished two-hundredths of a second out of a bronze medal Saturday.

The final full day of competition saw orange-haired Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway ski his way through thick fog and stinging sleet to win the giant slalom, edging his country a bit closer to the 28 overall medals won by Germany.

The first run of the giant slalom was well under way when a moderate earthquake rattled Nagano and the surrounding mountains shortly before 10 a.m. The ground shook for about two seconds, rattling a temporary press room near the finish area, but the race went on without delay.

"It was really a strange feeling, but I don't want to use that as an excuse," said Austrian skier Mario Reiter, who felt the ground move just before he failed to complete his run.

Others didn't even notice.

"What earthquake?" asked Tara Lipinski, who won the women's figure skating gold only 11 hours earlier.

Buraas, whose Dennis Rodman-style hair has been shades of white, green and flaming orange-red this season, rallied on the second run to win in a total time of 1 minute, 49.31 seconds.

Norwegian teammate Ole Christian Furuseth won the silver medal in 1:50.64 and first-run leader Thomas Sykora of Austria dropped to third in 1:50.68. Sykora's bronze gave Austria eight of the 15 men's Alpine medals.

Hans-Petter led a 1-2 finish for Norway in the slalom, charging back in the second run to win gold with a time of 1:49.31 Gary M Prior/Allsport

Tomba, a three-time gold medalist, shook his head in dismay after completing his first run of the giant slalom in 17th place and nearly two seconds out of the lead. He left the course and went to his hotel room, while he watched his fellow competitors in their second runs.

"He skied 20 gates before the race without feeling any pain. But he felt pain about midcourse in the first run, and even thought about stopping," said Alessia Tomba, the skier's sister and spokeswoman. "Between runs, things worsened and he decided not to start in the second."

With two medal events left before the closing ceremony, Germany led in total medals with 29 (12 gold, 9 silver, 8 bronze) to 24 for Norway (9-10-5). Russia was third with 17 (9-5-3). The United States (6-3-4) was in sixth place with 13 medals, but fourth in total gold medals.

Other highlights Saturday:

• Hockey: If the United States being ousted before getting a chance to play for a medal wasn't shocking enough, Canada leaving Nagano without a hockey medal was just as astonishing. Ville Peltonen's tiebreaking goal 17 seconds into the third period and Ari Sulander's 32-save performance gave Finland the win.
  Canada had been the gold medal favorite before losing to the Czech Republic, which will face Russia in the gold medal game Sunday.
• Bobsled: Not since Arthur Tyler captured the four-man bronze in 1956 has the United States won a medal in a sport it once dominated. That didn't change Saturday, when Brian Shimer's USA 1 sled finished fourth, just two-hundredths of a second behind France and Britain.
  

  Christoph Langen drove Germany 2 to a gold medal in the four-man bobsled, winning by six-tenths of a second Jamie Squire/Allsport

  Christoph Langen easily won gold in Germany 2, while Switzerland's Marcel Rohner won silver. France and Britain were both awarded bronze medals.
• Short-track skating: The Americans, who captured four short-track medals in Lillehammer, were shut out in Nagano. The last U.S. hope for a medal, Andy Gabel, skidded into a wall during an early heat of the men's 500 meters. The gold medalists on Saturday: Takafumi Nishitani of Japan won the men's 500 meters, Chun Lee-kyung of South Korea won the women's 1,000 meters, and the men's 5,000-meter relay went to Canada.
• State of the games: A day before the games conclude with a gold medal hockey game and closing ceremonies that feature traditional drums and dancing, the head of the Nagano Olympics organizing committee proclaimed them a success.
  Makoto Kobayashi said that was despite bad weather, a nasty flu bug that sidelined dozens of athletes and an uproar over American hockey players, the games went well.
  "Every time you have a big event like this there are bound to be problems," Kobayashi said. "I won't say everything was perfect. But we didn't repeat the same mistakes over the same things."
• Biathlon: Germany added to its medal total by winning the 30-kilometer relay with three of the same competitors who won the gold at Lillehammer four years ago. The final biathlon race of the Olympics saw Norway take the silver medal and Russia the bronze. Skies cleared shortly before race time, but earlier light rain and snow flurries made for soggy, slow course conditions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.