Olympic Briefs: Injured Kildow may ski today

Alpine skiing

American medal hopeful Lindsey Kildow was released from a hospital Tuesday morning, just 24 hours after she careened out of control and slammed into the frozen downhill course at 50 mph.

Kildow, who suffered a bruised hip, was "in good general condition," hospital spokeswoman Laura Capponi told The Associated Press. U.S. ski team officials weren't ruling out Kildow competing in today's downhill.

Curling

American men in good position: The U.S. men picked up a 10-4 victory over New Zealand in eight ends. The Americans (2-1), who next face Italy, probably need one or two wins in their other four games to reach the medal round.

Italy needed an extra end to beat Germany 9-8, and Sweden beat Canada 8-7, also in overtime.

U.S. women winless: The Americans (0-3) fell 6-5 to Japan in extra ends, falling to last place in the 10-team field.

Britain (2-0), a 5-4 winner over Switzerland, is the only unbeaten team remaining. Italy (0-2), a 10-7 loser to Denmark, is the only winless team besides the United States.

Speedskating

Svetlana Zhurova, a 34-year-old Russian who took a break from speedskating in 2003 to have a baby and regained her top form only recently, won the gold medal in the 500 meters. She skated a combined time of 1 minute, 16.57 seconds to give Russia its second speedskating medal in Turin. Dmitry Dorofeyev won silver in the men's 500 on Monday.

Germans sweep again: Sylke Otto became the second women's luger to win consecutive golds, leading Germany to its sixth medal sweep in 12 Olympics.

Courtney Zablocki of Highlands Ranch, Colo., was fourth to match her best international finish.

Silke Kraushaar won a record third overall medal and Tatjana Huefner edged Zablocki for the final podium spot. There have been 36 medals awarded in women's Olympic luge history; 27 have been won by Germans.

Cross-country skiing

Narrow win for Swedes: Lina Andersson and Anna Dahlberg of Sweden won gold in the women's team sprint, edging Beckie Scott and Sara Renner of Canada by six-tenths of a second.

American Kikkan Randall, who was cleared Monday to compete after a five-day suspension for high hemoglobin levels, and Wendy Wagner were last in the final.

Sweden doubles up: Bjoern Lind of Sweden pushed from third to first in the final 100 meters to lift Thobias Fredriksson and himself to the gold in the men's team sprint.

Biathlon

Germans repeat: Defending champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen faltered, allowing Sven Fischer to give the Germans their second straight gold in the men's biathlon.

Snowboarding

Hale sidelined: American snowboarder Jayson Hale tore ligaments in his right knee during training and will miss the snowboardcross race later in the week.

His spot is expected to be taken by Graham Watanabe, a reserve who traveled to Italy to serve as a wax tech for friends on the team.

Bobsled

First positive test of Games: A Brazilian bobsledder who tested positive for steroids in a pre-Olympic drug test became the first athlete sent home from the Turin Games for doping. Armando dos Santos failed a test in early January when a sample showed evidence of the steroid nandrolone.

Seattle Times news services