OLYMPICS Austrian skiers get a sweep

They won more medals in one day than the U.S. Ski Team did at Turin.
SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) -- His final race at these Olympics cut short by yet another mistake, Bode Miller stood beside the course, shaking his hands and wiggling his head in mock celebration.
How appropriate.
A few hours later, at the bottom of the hill, gold medalist Benjamin Raich was paraded around on the shoulders of two teammates after Austria produced a 1-2-3 sweep in the slalom.
How appropriate.
Miller and the other Americans not only failed to challenge Austria's Alpine skiing supremacy, they didn't even come close.
And in a fitting finish to the 10-race schedule, Austrian skiers collected more medals in a single day than the entire U.S. Ski Team did at the Turin Games.
"We've been showing all season that we can win big races, and that the guys can ski with the best of the Austrians," U.S. slalom coach Mike Morin said.
"We handed it to them today. We gave them a triple podium, and that hurts painfully."
Fifth sweep ever
The sweep by Raich, silver medalist Reinfried Herbst and bronze medalist Rainer Schoenfelder was just the fifth in 122 Alpine events in Olympic history and the first in a slalom.
Austria finishes with 14 Alpine medals, the most ever for one country at a Winter Games. The United States leaves with two.
Raich matched that all by himself. Not bad for a man who carried a reputation for faltering under pressure -- until becoming "Mr. Consistency" last season by finishing all 38 races he entered.
He won the giant slalom Monday, then was fastest in both runs of the slalom Saturday for a combined time of 1 minute, 43.14 seconds. Herbst was 0.83 seconds behind, Schoenfelder 1.01.
Skiers had problems
Credit the Austrian with staying upright on a day when many of the world's top skiers crashed, skied off course or were disqualified.
That included Miller, combined gold medalist Ted Ligety of the United States (disqualified on the first run), pre-race favorite Giorgio Rocca of Italy (fell on the first run), and Kalle Palander of Finland (second after the first run, disqualified in the second).
"Part of it was the snow was slicker than we expected," said Ligety, undone by a section of tightly bunched gates, "and part of it was Olympic jitters -- guys are going for it."
Miller missed a gate in a section that didn't appear to be as tough, and perhaps his flop isn't all that surprising. Since winning a slalom in Sestriere in December 2004, he's failed to finish 12 of 15. And his final Olympics log looked like this: fifth in the downhill, disqualified in the combined, didn't finish the super-g, tied for sixth in the giant slalom, didn't finish the slalom.
His words later indicated not a shred of regret.
"As far as my own personal involvement, I would not change anything. I had an awesome Olympics. My preparation could have certainly been different, but I'm not a guy who looks back," Miller said from his RV in a post-race interview with Associated Press sports columnist Jim Litke.