Sweden shine on snow and ice

Sweden stamped their mark on the Winter Games yesterday with Alpine skier Anja Paerson winning the women's slalom and cross-country athlete Bjoern Lind helping the country equal their previous best ever medal haul.

Paerson's success under floodlights gave Sweden their fourth gold of the Games and their 10th medal in all.

With a 5-4 victory over Norway to reach the women's curling final and a 6-2 defeat of the Swiss in the ice hockey quarter-finals, Sweden shone brightly on day 12.

Finland, too, had a stellar day, beating the United States 4-3 in their ice hockey quarter-final.

Like Sweden, the Austrians have also notched up a bumper medal haul, despite their Games being marred by a doping scandal swirling round their biathlon and cross country teams.

The medal tally stood at 19 yesterday, including eight golds, after Austrians Nicole Hosp and Marlies Schild took silver and bronze behind Paerson, who won gold despite being injured. Germany lead on 22, including nine golds.

Croatia's Janica Kostelic, who sealed her title as the most successful woman Olympic Alpine skier in history in Turin, was forced down the table into fourth.

Her Olympics now look over. Tired, she said she would be unlikely to race in tomorrow's giant slalom, the last women's event of these Games.

Away from the piste, Olympic officials said 10 Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing athletes would have to wait longer for the results of doping tests, taken during a night raid on Saturday.

The Austrians have criticised officials for disrupting their training schedules with the raids, triggered by a tip-off that a coach, banned from the Olympics over a blood doping affair four years ago, was meeting Austrian athletes.

The IOC said it would launch a disciplinary investigation into why the Austrians snubbed the ban on coach Walter Mayer.

In an unhappy twist, he is in psychiatric hospital in Austria after he crashed into police cars and was reported in Austrian media to have mentioned suicide.

The medals for Austria in the slalom were welcome but the day was Paerson's, who earlier said she had hurt her knee when she leaned back as she warmed up. She clocked the fastest first leg.

"I was attacking as much as I could because I knew I had to do my best after having no luck in the combined slalom," Paerson, who was disappointed to take bronze in that event and in the downhill, told reporters after the first leg.

Earlier, Lind also gave his country a record equalling third cross-country skiing gold medal. He won his second gold in the individual sprint.

The Swedes have now captured three gold medals in cross-country skiing at these Games - a feat they have managed only twice before, in St Moritz in 1948 and Sarajevo in 1984.

Canada also had something to boast about. Chandra Crawford won in the women's sprint, giving Canada their first cross-country gold medal of the Games. On the ice, Cindy Klassen took the gold and Kristina Groves the silver in the 1,500m speedskating.

But a 7-5 defeat by Switzerland in the women's curling semi-finals was hard to bear for a country said to be home to 94 per cent of the world's curlers.

Switzerland also rejoiced when the Schoch brothers, Philipp and Simon, took first and second in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom.

"We spoke briefly before the final and we just told each other to enjoy the race," Philipp said. "We just said 'let the best man on the day win' and today that was me - so sorry, Simon!"

Women's aerials final: 1. Evelyne Leu (Switzerland); 2. Li Nina (China); 3. Alisa Camplin (Australia).

Women's relay (short track - 3,000m): 1. South Korea; 2. Canada; 3. Italy.