The uproar of dismay that greeted home favourite Giorgio Rocca’s early fall on the Sestriere Colle slalom course yesterday will have rumbled around the whole of Italy.

After Shelley Rudman’s sterling silver it seems to have been more or less downhill all the way for Team GB in Turin. Even the curlers, in the end, suffered from medal fatigue.

The Winter Olympics are drawing to a close in Turin today, but the impact of the Games could be felt in Britain for a generation. For figure skating is witnessing a surge in popularity unlike anything seen since the days of Torvill and Dean.

The uproar of dismay that greeted home favourite Giorgio Rocca’s early fall on the Sestriere Colle slalom course yesterday will have rumbled around the whole of Italy.

The Winter Olympics are drawing to a close in Turin today, but the impact of the Games could be felt in Britain for a generation. For figure skating is witnessing a surge in popularity unlike anything seen since the days of Torvill and Dean.

A campaign that had begun so brightly ended sadly here yesterday for the four Scots comprising Britain’s male curling team as they missed out on a bronze medal two days after the prospect of gold or silver had disappeared with the last stone of their semi-final against Finland.

A campaign that had begun so brightly ended sadly here yesterday for the four Scots comprising Britain’s male curling team as they missed out on a bronze medal two days after the prospect of gold or silver had disappeared with the last stone of their semi-final against Finland.

As the monks at Paisley Abbey who first sent big lumps of stone across a frozen pond in 1541 surely realised (thanks for that, Dougie “Motty” Donnelly), you don’t need to hype curling. I remember measuring my pulse during England’s penalty shoot-out against Argentina in France ‘98 and registering some alarm when it topped out at 180bpm. During the final end of the men’s Olympic semi-final on Wednesday it reached 120, which I think compares favourably.

An Austrian official yesterday voiced fears that the team could be banned from future Games by the International Olympic Committee following last Saturday’s doping raid on their cross country and biathlon skiers here.

An Austrian official yesterday voiced fears that the team could be banned from future Games by the International Olympic Committee following last Saturday’s doping raid on their cross country and biathlon skiers here.

If there was any doubt in Enrico Fabris’ mind about his new-found status within Italian sport, it was expunged yesterday morning when he woke up to a tidal wave of praise heading in his direction.

For a few heady moments here last night, David Murdoch’s men thought they were into the Olympic curling gold-medal play-off after the British skip’s last delivery had drifted perfectly into place and left his Finnish counterpart, Markku Uusipaavalniemi, needing to draw the final delivery directly into the centre of the house. They were wrong. After a lengthy discussion, Uusipaavalniemi held his nerve to see his team through to tomorrow’s final against Canada.

The Italian speedskater, Enrico Fabris, urged calm yesterday after winning a gold medal at the 1500 metres here and becoming the only Italian male athlete ever to have won three medals at one Games. As congratulations poured in from all over the country, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Fabris tried to keep the fuss to a minimum.

As one observer here noted, Chemmy Alcott has now got the same number of Olympic medals at the Turin Games as the great Bode Miller. That is, none.

Rhona Martin’s defence of the Olympic curling title her team won four years ago was looking forlorn last night after a 10-5 defeat by Japan. “It was very important,” Martin said. “It’s put us out of the Olympics.”

Hermann Maier returned to the Olympic podium on Saturday after a gap of eight years - and five years after the motorcycle accident which almost cost him a leg. Although the Austrian was unable to add to the two Olympic golds he earned at Nagano in 1998, he was hardly discontented with the silver he took in the super-giant slalom behind Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

The most predictable result of the 2006 Winter Olympics duly occurred here
yesterday when Austria came last in the 4×10km cross-country skiing relay
after an overnight armed police raid of the team’s rooms on suspicion of
drug use.

Rhona Martin’s defence of the Olympic curling title her team won four years ago was looking forlorn last night after a 10-5 defeat by Japan. “It was very important,” Martin said. “It’s put us out of the Olympics.”