BEST 10 OF THE GAMES

1. THE HERMANNATOR

It was a most Zen-like experience--Hermann Maier becoming one with the mountain, then living to tell about it, then receiving gold medals in the men’s super-G and giant slalom. Das Stud of the Nagano Games.

2. THE DOMINATOR

Czech Republic ubergoalie Dominik Hasek, on loan from Buffalo, turns semifinal shootout with Canada into a shutout, then blanks Pavel Bure and Sergei Fedorov for a 1-0 gold-medal victory. In his honor, they are thinking of changing the hockey arena’s name to Big Glove.

3. TARA! TARA! TARA!

After stealing the gold from Michelle Kwan, where does Lipinski go from here? To drivers’ ed class.

4. PICABO, ROUND II

A gold medal for Alpine skier Street barely a year after knee surgery. Did she borrow the helmet from Tiger Woods?

5. ONE HOCKEY TEAM DOES AMERICA PROUD

When the U.S. women said they were bringing home the gold, they didn’t mean something in a six-pack.

6. BJORN AGAIN . . . AND AGAIN . . . AND AGAIN

Irrepressible Bjorn Daehlie, the Norwegian cross-country skier with a snowmobile engine for a heart, wins three golds and a silver to become the all-time Winter Olympics leader in gold medals (eight) and total medals (12).

7. HARADA SIGHT

Ski jumper Masahiko Harada cost Japan a team gold medal in 1994 when he short-hopped his final attempt. Four years later, redemption came in front of the home fans in the form of an individual bronze off the big hill and a 137-meter tape-measure job to clinch the team gold medal.

8. ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR BRONZE

Only in men’s figure skating can someone dress up like a musketeer and lend class to the proceedings. Philippe Candeloro’s D’Artagnan routine was the pre-Lipinski highlight of the figure-skating competition--and his surprising bronze medal offered valuable evidence that, yes, on occasion, even the stuffed shirts behind the judges’ table like to get down and have some fun.

9. LARISSA! LARISSA! LARISSA!

Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina was the Bjorn Daehlie of the women’s division, leading the Nagano standings with three gold medals, a silver and bronze.

10. GOT THEIR MOJO

WORKING

When Mojo Nixon sang “There’ll be plunder and pillage in the village,” he wasn’t talking about the U.S. men’s hockey team. Jumping on the U.S. luge bandwagon before it was anything close to cool, Mojo provided the soundtrack for the two-man teams of Gordy Sheer-Chris Thorpe and Mark Grimmette-Brian Martin as they slid away with the first American luge medals in history.