Bjoerndalen Falls Short Again

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s trigger finger is a bit shaky. His composure remains rock-steady.

“I’m not going to give up. There’s still competition to come and I have confidence I’ll be able to win gold medals,” the Norwegian said after his 12th-place finish in the 10-kilometer sprint allowed Sven Fischer to win Germany’s second straight Olympic gold medal in the men’s biathlon Tuesday at Cesana.

Bjoerndalen had hopes of sweeping all five golds in Italy but is medal-less after two events.

American Jay Hakkinen finished 80th out of 90 competitors.

Bjoerndalen, who stood atop the podium in Nagano and Salt Lake City after the 10-kilometer sprints, missed one prone shot and furiously tried to make up time but missed twice standing, relegating him to 12th.

His teammates did well, with Halvard Hanevold winning the silver and Frode Andresen taking the bronze.

Hakkinen predicted he was primed to give the U.S. its first biathlon medal after narrowly missing out on the bronze in the 20-kilometer race Saturday. But he missed all five of his prone shots Tuesday.

After his fifth miss, he threw his poles down in disgust and dejection, then accidentally skied six 150-meter penalty loops instead of the required five.

“These Games are done,” Hakkinen said. “I think this will live with me for the rest of my life.”

CURLING

U.S. Men Victorious; U.S. Women Lose Twice

The U.S. men’s team picked up a 10-4 victory over New Zealand in eight ends at Pinerolo, wrapping things up two frames early a day after a last-rock loss to Finland.

The Americans’ next game is against Italy, which should mean a win for the U.S., which also has a game remaining against the winless Germans, meaning the U.S. (2-1) probably needs to steal just one or two more victories in its other four games to reach the medal round.

The U.S. women fell to 0-3 with an 11-5 loss to Canada, followed by a 6-5 loss to Japan. The U.S. women need to win at least five of their last seven games to qualify for the medal round.

In other men’s games, Norway beat Switzerland, 7-2; Sweden defeated Canada, 8-7 and Italy beat Germany, 9-8. For the women, Russia beat Japan, 7-5; England beat Switzerland, 5-4; Norway routed Sweden, 10-3; Denmark beat Italy, 10-7; Canada beat Russia, 6-5, and Switzerland beat Norway, 9-2.