updated 7:21 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2006

TURIN, Italy - The big question going into Thursday night's women's free skate was would Sasha Cohen or Irina Slutskaya walk away with the gold.

The big answer? Neither.

Here are highlights of Day 13:

Women's free skate
Shizuka Arakawa skated off with Japan’s first medal of these Olympics — a gold in the showcase event.

What a way to end a shutout!

The 2004 world champion stunned favorites Cohen of the United States and Slutskaya of Russia to claim figure skating’s biggest prize Thursday night.

Arakawa did it with elegance and technical brilliance that even had two-time Olympic winner Katarina Witt standing and applauding before the Japanese skater was done. Cohen fell twice and finished with a silver; Slutskaya fell once and took bronze.

WINTER OLYMPICS More on women's figure skating Despite falls, Cohen wins silver medal Cohen says silver medal 'painful,' eyes '10 Celizic: Cohen picks herself up, wins silver Opinion: Cohen just missed gold — twice Vote: Did she skate hurt? | Deserve silver? Slutskaya falls short | Russian sweep derailed Arakawa finally perfect | Japan improving Vote: Who will win skating gold in 2010? Final overall standings |   Photos: Free fallin' More on Cohen | Test your skating IQ MORE ON FIGURE SKATING

The Japanese team has struggled in the mountains and on the ice in Turin. But Arakawa, third after the short program and a mere .71 points behind Cohen, was magnificent. Her spectacular spirals thrilled the crowd and, more importantly, impressed the judges.

She was emotionless for most of her breathtaking four-minute routine, then broke into a smile that only got bigger when the scores were flashed. When her personal best of 125.32 points for the free skate were displayed, she flashed a “V” for victory sign then pumped her fist when she moved into first place with 191.34 points.

Cohen had already flubbed her first two jumps — and her shot at gold. That left Slutskaya, a two-time world champion and 2002 Olympic silver medalist. She lacked sparkle in her free skate and the fall ended any chance she had.

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

That ended Russia’s hopes for an unprecedented sweep of the gold after taking the men’s, pairs and ice dancing titles.

Arakawa, 24, became the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist in figure skating and just the second with any medal; Midori Ito, one of Arakawa’s idols, won silver behind Kristi Yamaguchi in 1992. Ito led the cheers of the flag-waving Japanese in the crowd.

Cohen’s history of flopping in the biggest international events bit her again.

Men's freestyle aerials
As promised, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson tried his trademark trick — the Hurricane — on the aerials course, but a bobble on the landing did him in.

He finished seventh on a night when the world’s best simply weren’t making mistakes.

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

Han Xiaopeng of China won gold, Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus took silver and Vladimir Lebedev of Russia won bronze after coming in as only the 30th-ranked aerialist in the world.

Thus ended a disappointing Olympics for the American freestyle team on the mountain. After winning three golds in 1998 and three silvers in 2002, the entire team leaves Italy with only one medal — the bronze won by Toby Dawson in men’s moguls.

Women's snowboarding giant slalom
As they so often do in this Swiss-dominated era of parallel giant slalom, clanging cowbells announced the winner.

This time, the clanging was pleasing to American ears as well, as the bronze went to Rosey Fletcher, the first U.S. woman to climb on the podium in the Olympics’ final snowboarding event.

Three-time defending world cup champion Daniela Meuli of Switzerland gave her country and its red-clad, raucous, flag-waving Alpine fans a second gold in as many days. Philipp Schoch won the men’s event Wednesday, with brother Simon winning silver.

Slide show   Short and sweet See images of U.S. women's figure skaters Sasha Cohen, Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes from Tuesday's short program.

Fletcher had a .24 lead over Meuli after the first semifinal run, but the American’s board went out from under her when the pair switched courses, allowing Meuli to coast into the final round.

It was a similar story in the championship race, as German Amelie Kober crashed and slid into the safety fence just as it appeared she might overtake Meuli.

In the bronze-medal race, Fletcher took a 1.5-second lead in the first run after Austrian Doris Guenther went down. Fletcher still needed to make that lead stand up when she switched to the red course, which had been the slower and more treacherous course throughout the event.

Racing cautiously, Fletcher allowed Guenther to make up ground on the top of the course, but then the American put it in overdrive on the bottom and won easily.

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