Alpine Skiing

Bode Miller came back from a terrible knee injury just to compete in yesterday's Olympic men's Alpine skiing combined. He came back from much further to win a silver medal, the first ever for an American in the event. Miller, 24, slipped and nearly wiped out on his downhill run at Snowbasin Ski Area. He was ranked 15th going into the two slalom runs that make up the rest of the scoring. That appeared to make a medal a pipe dream for Miller, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament and damaged cartilage in his left knee last year.

1 a.m.-6 p.m.: Women's cross-country, 30 km mass-start final (live); men's and women's speedskating, pursuit finals (live); Men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom qualifying competition (live); men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom quarterfinals; four-man bobsled final. 8-11 p.m.: Figure-skating champions gala; men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom final; men's alpine skiing, slalom final; four-man bobsled final. 1:02-4 a.m.: Prime-time replay. Noon-3 p.m.: Men's curling, bronze medal match: Sweden vs. Switzerland (live)

As a German team raced to the lead in the two-man bobsled competition at Cesana yesterday, the United States and several other countries were considering protests over the possibility that illegal sleds were used by the Germans. Germans Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske led the field after two runs, with the final two runs scheduled today. The top American duo, Todd Hays and Pavle Jovanovic, ranked sixth. "I don't know what the deal is, but they're just absolutely flying," Jovanovic, a native of Toms River, N.J., said of the Germans.

The U.S. Olympic Committee submitted its final roster for the Turin Olympics yesterday, a list of 211 athletes including Bode Miller, Jeremy Bloom, Michelle Kwan and Apolo Anton Ohno. Of the 211, 85 competed in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and 40 of those helped the United States set a record with 34 medals. One of the athletes, Sarah Konrad, is competing in two sports - biathlon and cross country. She is the first American woman to qualify for two sports at a Winter Olympics.

What promises to be an emotion-charged second medals ceremony for pairs figure skating, necessitated by the extraordinary events that followed last week's competition, will take place tonight at 10:45 p.m. Eastern time. According to an International Olympic Committee official, no one is yet sure whether Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the winners before a French judge admitted she had been pressured to vote for them, will attend. Francois Carrard, the IOC's director-general, said that issue and the order in which the national anthems will be played will be worked out at a meeting today.

IT'S THAT TIME again. That time once every 2 years when the greatest athletes rarely in the spotlight get their moments to shine. Over the summer of 2008, it was swimmer Michael Phelps, whose run of eight gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing captured the imagination of the American public. In a month, the attention of the sports world will focus on Vancouver for the XXI Winter Olympics, beginning on Feb. 12. So don't be surprised if over the next 30 days you're inundated with the name Lindsey Vonn.

Every dictator has his price, albeit a much higher one than your average Joe. So it's good news that the Clinton administration - in tandem, for once, with the CIA - seems to be trying to figure out what basket of perks will lure Haiti's top three stooges into comfortable exile. We are speaking here, of course, of Lt. Gen. Raul Cedras and his junta- mates, the commander of police and the army chief of staff. They have been ruling now since 1991, without benefit of election. Haiti's ousted President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is getting antsy in exile, watching his term run out. And ordinary Haitians are suffering under the brunt of international sanctions.

1 a.m.-6 p.m.: Women's cross-country, 30 km mass-start final (live); men's and women's speedskating, pursuit finals (live); Men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom qualifying competition (live); men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom quarterfinals; four-man bobsled final. 8-11 p.m.: Figure-skating champions gala; men's snowboard, parallel giant-slalom final; men's alpine skiing, slalom final; four-man bobsled final. 1:02-4 a.m.: Prime-time replay. Noon-3 p.m.: Men's curling, bronze medal match: Sweden vs. Switzerland (live)

IT'S THAT TIME again. That time once every 2 years when the greatest athletes rarely in the spotlight get their moments to shine. Over the summer of 2008, it was swimmer Michael Phelps, whose run of eight gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing captured the imagination of the American public. In a month, the attention of the sports world will focus on Vancouver for the XXI Winter Olympics, beginning on Feb. 12. So don't be surprised if over the next 30 days you're inundated with the name Lindsey Vonn.

As a German team raced to the lead in the two-man bobsled competition at Cesana yesterday, the United States and several other countries were considering protests over the possibility that illegal sleds were used by the Germans. Germans Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske led the field after two runs, with the final two runs scheduled today. The top American duo, Todd Hays and Pavle Jovanovic, ranked sixth. "I don't know what the deal is, but they're just absolutely flying," Jovanovic, a native of Toms River, N.J., said of the Germans.

The U.S. Olympic Committee submitted its final roster for the Turin Olympics yesterday, a list of 211 athletes including Bode Miller, Jeremy Bloom, Michelle Kwan and Apolo Anton Ohno. Of the 211, 85 competed in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and 40 of those helped the United States set a record with 34 medals. One of the athletes, Sarah Konrad, is competing in two sports - biathlon and cross country. She is the first American woman to qualify for two sports at a Winter Olympics.

What promises to be an emotion-charged second medals ceremony for pairs figure skating, necessitated by the extraordinary events that followed last week's competition, will take place tonight at 10:45 p.m. Eastern time. According to an International Olympic Committee official, no one is yet sure whether Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the winners before a French judge admitted she had been pressured to vote for them, will attend. Francois Carrard, the IOC's director-general, said that issue and the order in which the national anthems will be played will be worked out at a meeting today.

Bode Miller came back from a terrible knee injury just to compete in yesterday's Olympic men's Alpine skiing combined. He came back from much further to win a silver medal, the first ever for an American in the event. Miller, 24, slipped and nearly wiped out on his downhill run at Snowbasin Ski Area. He was ranked 15th going into the two slalom runs that make up the rest of the scoring. That appeared to make a medal a pipe dream for Miller, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament and damaged cartilage in his left knee last year.

The long history of U.S. men's Alpine skiing in the Olympics is really a short story. Since the art of sliding quickly down hills was added in 1948 to the Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, 147 men's medals have been handed out. Leaning forward and bowing their heads to receive the laurels, skiers from Austria, Switzerland and France - why do you think they call it Alpine? - have formed a deep parade. Very few Yanks have joined them. Eight of the 147 medals have been given to Americans.