ROUNDUP | Wednesday's events

Hockey
United States 3, Latvia 3
Canada 7, Italy 2
Slovakia 5, Russia 3
Finland 5, Switzerland 0
Sweden 7, Kazakhstan 2
Czech Republic 4, Germany 1
Marian Gaborik scored twice late in the third period to help Slovakia upset Russia. Teemu Selanne and Olli Jokinen each had two goals and an assist in Finland's win over Switzerland, and Daniel Tjarnqvist scored twice to help Sweden beat Kazakhstan. Dominik Hasek went down with an injured hamstring only a few minutes into the Czech Republic's Olympic opener. Tomas Vokoun replaced him, and the Czechs held off Germany.
Freestyle skiing
Jeremy Bloom's skiing adventure came to a less-than-satisfying close. The two-sport star finished sixth in Olympic moguls. Dale Begg-Smith of Australia won the event, and Mikko Ronkainen took the silver. American Toby Dawson finished third. American Travis Mayer, the silver medalist in 2002, finished seventh and announced his retirement afterward, while teammate Travis Cabral came in ninth.
Speedskating
Team Pursuit
Chad Hedrick's hope of matching Eric Heiden's record five gold medals in a Winter Olympics ended when the Americans were eliminated in the quarterfinals of team pursuit. Hedrick, KC Boutiette and Charles Ryan Leveille lost to the Italian team of Matteo Anesi, Stefano Donagrandi and Enrico Fabris by nearly a half-second after leading through the first four laps. Leveille and Hedrick were first across the finish line, but Boutiette lagged about 10 feet behind. The Italians crossed together, giving them the surprising victory on home ice. A team wins when its third skater crosses the finish line.
Short Track
Wang Meng gave China an expected gold medal in women's 500-meter short track, holding off Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova by about the length of a skate blade. Anouk LeBlanc-Boucher of Canada took the bronze, getting to the line ahead of China's Fu Tianyu by an even smaller margin. It didn't matter when Fu was disqualified for cross-drafting. The 20-year-old Wang, skating in her first Olympics, was an overwhelming favorite in the 500, having won all four World Cup races this season. She fulfilled those expectations, getting off the line first and holding the lead the rest of the way.
Luge
Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin crashed, ending their run for the gold in an unexpected tangle of arms, legs and tears. Seeking the one medal that has eluded them, Grimmette and Martin wrecked on their first run, ending perhaps the final chase for the most decorated doubles luge team in U.S. history. Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger won the gold in doubles, finishing the two-run event in 1 minute, 34.497 seconds. Germany's Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich won the silver, and Italy got its second luge medal of the Turin Games as Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder took bronze.
Curling
Men
Italy 6, United States 5
Finland 7, New Zealand 5
Germany 5, Finland 2
Norway 9, Sweden 4
Britain 6, Norway 3
Canada 9, Britain 5
Canada 7, Switzerland 5
Italy shocked the United States and rocked the Olympic curling venue, earning a victory in the men's opening round. Italy is not a traditional curling power and is only in the tournament as host country. But the Italians took an early 2-0 lead and broke a 4-4 tie with a point in the eighth end. They stole a point in the ninth despite having to give up the big advantage that comes with being last to throw. American skip, or captain, Pete Fenson needed to knock one of his own rocks into the target zone and follow it in with another to even have a chance at forcing overtime. But as a hush came over the crowd, he could only put one rock into the target, and the U.S. conceded without Italy having to throw its last rock. The United States dropped to 2-2 with Italy, Norway and Finland. Canada, Britain and Sweden are tied for first at 3-1, and Germany and Switzerland are 1-2. New Zealand (0-4) remained winless.
Women
United States 8, Denmark 3
Sweden 8, Britain 6
Italy 6, Russia 4
Norway 9, Japan 4
The U.S. women earned their first Olympic victory -- they'll need several more to dig out of the hole they fell into when they lost their first three games at the curling venue outside of Turin. The Americans will probably need to win four -- if not all -- of the next five games to have a chance at the medal round. They are in last place in the round-robin; Norway is first at 3-1 with Canada, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland tied at 2-1. Four teams make the medal round. Denmark fell to 1-2, tied with Italy, Japan and Russia.
Nordic combined
The Nordic combined will resume today after the ski jumping portion was halted because of wind. In a surprising move, officials decided to restart today in the second round of the jumping portion after earlier announcing both Wednesday's rounds would be scrapped. That was bad news for reigning world champion Norway, a medal contender forced to pull out Tuesday because its athletes were ill. The Norwegians initially thought they might have a chance to get back on the start list.
Associated Press