updated 7:19 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2006

TURIN, Italy - The United States team bounced back from an off-day Sunday, with feel-good victories in speedskating and women's halfpipe snowboarding.

Perhaps most memorable of the day's events was a dramatic comeback by a Chinese figure skating duo.

Speedskating
Joey Cheek won the men’s speedskating 500, the second straight Olympics an American has won the race.

Cheek was the only skater to break 35 seconds in the two-race event, and he did it both times around the track. His times of 34-point-82 and 34-point-94 seconds gave him a total time of one minute, nine-point-76 seconds.

Dmitry Dorofeyev of Russia won the silver, finishing 65-hundredths of a second behind Cheek. South Korea earned a bronze.

Snowboarding
The U.S. women matched the men in the halfpipe.

Americans Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler grabbed the gold and silver medals. Shaun White and Danny Kass were one-two in men’s event on Sunday.

Americans also took the fourth spot in both events.

Kelly Clark, the 2002 gold medalist, got bumped out of the women’s third spot after Norway’s Kjersti Buaas had one of the runs of her life.

Slide show   Pictures of the Day Check out Sunday's best Olympic images.

Alpine skiing
American skier Lindsey Kildow has a severe hip or pelvic bruise.

The U.S. Olympic Committee Web site says Kildow will be hospitalized overnight as a precaution.

Kildow was going about 50 miles an hour when she fell during downhill training today at the Winter Olympics. She says she still hopes to compete.

An orthopedic surgeon on the team’s staff says she doesn’t appear to have any other injuries, though she is “pretty banged up and she’s pretty sore.” Dr. Bill Starrett says Kildow did not lose consciousness when she fell.

Defending gold medalist Carole Montillet-Carles also crashed during her run, and a team official says she had rib and back trauma. Her status is uncertain. ’

Four racers in all fell during today’s session, including a Canadian who tore knee ligaments.

Figure skating
Perhaps it could be described as an evening that showed everything that’s right and everything that’s misunderstood about Olympics pairs figure skating

Russians Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin were brilliant in historically memorable proportions while winning the gold medal.

Slide show   Emotional Moments Feb. 26: See photos of athletes' highs and lows from Sunday.

Chinese skaters took second, third and fourth, although Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao were a questionable second after a fall and injury interrupted their free skate. They showed great courage in continuing and winning over the crowd. Though a little wobbly for a moment after the delay, they hit enough elements well enough to slip into second place.

Americans Rena Inoue and John Baldwin recorded a personal best score and finished seventh.

Hockey
Sweden and Finland both won in women’s hockey. The Swedes blanked Italy 11-to-0, and the Finns shut out Switzerland 4-to-0. All four semifinal berths are filled even though each team has one game left. The Swedes and Finns will join the U.S. and Canada as the final four teams.

Curling
Curling has begun. The U.S. men got off to an excellent start by beating defending champion Norway 11-to-5, but the Americans then lost to Finland 4-to-3. The U.S. women were beaten by Norway 11-to-6.

Luge
The U.S. has another shot at its first-ever Olympic medal in luge.

Courtney Zablocki is in fourth place after today’s first two runs in the women’s singles. The final two runs are tomorrow.

Germans hold the top three spots. Zablocki is four-thousandths of a second out of third place and about a half-second out of first.

American Samantha Retrosi suffered a concussion and cut chin in a crash. U.S. team officials say she was flown to a Turin hospital.

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