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10:15 - 11:30 PM ET / 9:45 - 11 PM PT Figure Skating: Champions gala With all the medals safely tucked away and all the Olympic pressure gone, the exhibitions allow the skaters and audience to party. Tonight we'll see crazy outfits, difficult jumps, different kinds of music, and plenty of smiles from the athletes and spectators. Relaxation and celebration are the themes of the evening.

As the Olympics wind down, it's time for us to tip our cap to the gracious Utahans There are myriad reasons a municipality or a region decides it is worth investing decades of energy and hundreds of millions of dollars in hosting an Olympics. But for the last two American hosts, Atlanta and Salt Lake City, the principal motives have been much the same. Both had international reputations, to the extent that they had any, as provincial cities: cozy communities which might be lovely places to raise children, but you really weren't dying to visit there. Both hoped to create ...

The Olympic ideal played out in real life here over the past week as a small group of Utahns embraced the struggling women's hockey team from Kazakhstan. When the team showed up in grubby gear for a practice at The Peaks Ice Arena on Feb. 8, Orem's Shannon Arnoldsen and other volunteers couldn't help but notice. "Sweden gets off the bus with matching berets and Versace outfits," said Matthew Hemmert, a volunteer who supervises team transportation. "Then Kazakhstan gets off in hospital scrubs or sweat pants with holes in them." The bus driver told Arnoldsen a sobering tale. He had ...

Face off 6:15 ET on CNBC.

Oughta be a great one.Let's all have a fair game and drop the puck!

<p>SALT LAKE CITY — Russia's protest of Irina Slutskaya's second-place finish in Thursday's ladies figure skating final was quickly rejected Friday by the referees on the judging panel. "This was a fair and well-judged event and we see absolutely no reason (to overturn the result)," referee Britta Lindgren of Sweden told USA TODAY. "We have discussed it (the marks) with the judges and we accept their explanations." "The response has been given (to the Russians) and that's the end of it as far as we're concerned," said Chuck Foster of the United States, the assistant referee. The Russians have the option of appealing to the International Skating Union Council, but there was no immediate word if they planned to do so.</p>

<p>CNN announced Olympic officials have granted the Russians an investigation into the 5.6 mark that was given by an Italian judge during the Ladies Skating Program.</p> <p>They are concerned that skater Irina Slutskaya was not graded properly on required elements that are available on videotape.</p>

The events for the day will be underway shortly. GO TEAM USA and too all freedom loving nations...GOOD LUCK. You can get live results online at this link >Live Results Today's Events: Bobsleigh 4 men 530 pm est Skiing Ladies Super G 12 noon est. Curling Medal games. Hockey Men's semi's Nordic Combined Sprint Speed Skating Men 10000 m 2 pm est.

MSNBC showed footage of a press conference and Michelle had two medals on her neck the bronze and the one given to her by Peggy Fleming.She looked liked she was about to lose it..

<p>FOX just reported that the Russian Ice Hockey team is talking about not playing tonights showdown with the USA at 6PM EST.</p> <p>Russian Presdient Putin said that the athletes should compete after a conversation last night reported by Bob Costas with the International Olympic Committee head asking him to make sure that they would not boycott.</p>

At the end of the Ladies Skating Program Bob Costas picked up a late breaking news bulletin from Reuters within the hour that the President of the I.O.C. has contacted President Putin of Russia and asked the Russian athletes not to leave the Olympics.The Russians are talking about having a seperate games with China and other countries where the judging would be fairer according their view.

Russian Withdrawal Russia Feeling 'Unappreciated,' Threatens to Withdraw Athletes From Winter Games and Athens OlympicsThe Associated Press S A L T &nbsp; L A K E &nbsp; C I T Y, Feb. 21 — Russia may leave the Winter Olympics because of decisions against its athletes and may not compete in the 2004 Summer Games if its concerns are not addressed quickly, a Russian Olympic official said today.Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said he told IOC President Jacques Rogge that his nation was "greatly unappreciated" in the Olympics and wanted its issues taken seriously. The Russian's comments came at ...

You be the judge This week, as the figure-skating competition shifts to the women's event, the focus will be on the judges as much as the skaters. How do they make their decisions? Unlike in other sports, technical prowess counts for only so much. Winning is largely a matter of style. Evaluating the finer points of a skater's presentation, such as poise and emotive display, is subjective territory. But it could mean the difference between gold and silver, as Nancy Kerrigan learned in 1994, when judges ranked her flawless performance at Lillehammer behind Oksana Baiul's slightly flawed but more exuberant ...

SOLDIER HOLLOW, Utah (Reuters) - Russia's team at the Winter Olympics (news - web sites) is considering pulling out of the Games after they withdrew their cross-country relay team on Thursday following "abnormal" blood tests," the team spokesman said. "It has been discussed with Moscow," Gennady Shvets told Reuters. "This was the last straw." Shvets said discussions were still going on with International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) president Jacques Rogge and the team is due to hold a news conference imminently. Russia has had a disappointing Games and was upset by the furor over the judging of the ...

Postcard from Salt Lake City Dear Family: Wish you were here. We're having a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" in Salt Lake City. That's what everyone says at the Olympics just before they empty their wallets to watch an event. Saw the men's figure skating. Just wondering who dresses these guys. They dress a lot like Aunt Millie. I wonder who let them raid Liberace's closet. Watching men in sequins and chiffon &#151; a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We've been standing in line for 10 hours trying to buy a Roots beret or anything with a maple leaf on it. The Canadians are popular ...

Shelters during Games minimal, jobless man says They haven't been herded onto buses out of town or rounded up by police, but several of Salt Lake's homeless say they are feeling little more than cold comfort from the city's effort to provide shelter during the Olympics. "The shelters are meager and minimal at best," said Jim Newfeld, an out-of-work electrician spending nights at the 500 West emergency shelter. "Not only that, the city is using us to pat themselves on the back about all they're doing. But it's not much, and it's all going away after this is over, anyway." ...

Ohno receives threatening e-mails USOC gives FBI menacing messages aimed at skating star ASSOCIATED PRESS SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 21 — Threatening e-mails regarding short-track speedskating gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno have been turned over to the FBI for investigation, the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday. THE THREATS WERE received following Ohno’s first race of the Olympics, when he won the silver medal in the 1,000 meters after wiping out near the finish line, USOC spokesman Mike Moran said. Another 16,000 e-mails regarding Ohno, mostly from sources in South Korea, crashed the USOC’s Internet server early Thursday for almost nine ...

<p>SALT LAKE CITY — The man on the boat docked in Marina del Rey, Calif., planned his evening just like millions of other Americans Tuesday night. He knew he wanted to be in front of the television set when Michelle Kwan skated her short program at the Olympics. He wasn't going to miss that.</p>

The events for the day will be underway shortly. GO TEAM USA and too all freedom loving nations...GOOD LUCK. You can get live results online at this link Live Results Todays Events: Mens giant slalom 12 noon est. Cross Country Skiing Women's 4x5 relay 230 pm est. Curling Ladies bronze medal game USA VS CAN 11 am est. Curling Ladies Gold Medal Game SUI vs GBR 4 pm est. Figure Skating Ladies Free Skate 8 pm est. Ice Hockey Women's bronze medal game 2 pm est. Ice Hockey Women's gold medal game 7 pm est. Nordic Combined Sprint k 120 ...

At the Home Depot, you cannot buy clap skates or curling stones with a can of paint or a stack of two-by-fours, but that does not mean the home improvement chain is not enamored of the Winter Olympics. In fact, if you seek help in the aisles of Home Depots in the United States and Canada, you may run into a speedskater, a curler, a skeleton racer, a snowboarder or a cross- country skier. The fellow wearing the orange apron at the West Valley City, Utah, store who found the perfect tiles for your patio floor might have been Derek ...