13-0 ISN’T SO BAD

Strange as it sounds, Japan’s women’s hockey team was not disappointed by its 13-0 loss to Canada on Sunday in the teams’ Olympic opener.

“When you’re 15 years behind in the sport and the last game we played against them was 18-0, we should be happy,” defenseman Chie Sakuma said. “This is progress. They had to work for their 13 goals.”

Sokuma was born in Houston, where her father was in the import-export business, and played hockey at Brown University, where her teammates included U.S. forward Katie King and Canadian defenseman Becky Kellar. Her parents are Japanese natives; her father coached her peewee team on a trip to Japan when she was 10 and made contacts that led to her being invited to play for Japan when its national team began.

Sakuma has conflicting loyalties in this tournament but was proud to walk into the opening ceremony with the Japanese team.

“Playing against the U.S. is probably the hardest because I know most of their players,” she said. “It would be nice to be on the other side, but Japan is also my parents’ home country and I was honored to represent Japan.”

PASSING THE TEST

How do you know your sport has made the big time?

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati said he knew snowboarding had become important because drug tests were introduced. Must mean cheating is OK until it becomes an Olympic sport and doping tests are mandatory.

Rebagliati won his event, the men’s giant slalom, and dedicated his victory to a friend who recently died. “Everything leading up to today has been my school for this,” Rebagliati said.

THE NAME IS SHANNON

Something got lost in the translation Sunday at the news conference after Canada’s women’s hockey game against Japan.

The press officer conducting the proceedings repeatedly referred to Canadian Coach Shannon Miller--who is female--as “Mr.” Miller.

THE GRANATO WATCH

Cammi Granato’s two-goal game Sunday gave her an unusual distinction:she has twice as many goals in Olympic play as her brother, Tony, who scored once in six games with the U.S. men’s team in 1988.

But it was another brother, Robbie, who inspired her Sunday by sending her a poem he had written. She was reluctant to reveal the title--”I’ll tell you before the gold-medal game,” she said--but said the theme emphasized taking advantage of this opportunity.

“I could probably recite the whole thing because I was reading it [Sunday] afternoon while I was listening to music and getting ready for the game,” she said. “It’s stuff like you worked for this for so long, this is not the time to mess up. It really summed up everything I’d gone through.”