Tonight was special in Vancouver. This was not because South Korean skater Yu-Na Kim broke a world record in the short program at the 2010 Winter Olympics, taking the Gold with great pride. Actually, the night belonged to a young Canadian who took to the ice with her heart in her hand.

That skater's name is Joannie Rochette and her story is bitter sweet.The six-time Canadian national champion came to Vancouver from her home town near Montreal. She crossed the country with her mother, Rochette, ready for the most important performance of her life.

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The British men’s curling team face a testing tie-breaker against European champions Sweden if they are to keep their medal hopes alive.The GB quartet, skipped by David Murdoch, failed to secure an automatic place in the semi-finals after sliding to a 9-5 defeat by Norway in their final round-robin match.

That left them tied with Sweden with five wins and four defeats from the nine-match qualifying phase, which means the two teams must play off for the last remaining place in the semi-finals.

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Canada brushed aside Germany to keep their men's ice hockey gold-medal bid on track and set up a keenly-awaited Olympic quarter-final with Russia.The host nation, whose fans are desperate for a men's ice hockey gold in Vancouver above all others, crushed the Germans 8-2 at Canada Hockey Place to atone for their preliminary round defeat to the United States last Sunday.

The shock 5-3 loss to the Americans left Canada in a play-off round rather than with a bye to the last eight and also meant the Canadians would have to face their biggest Winter Olympics rivals Russia at the quarter-final stage.

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Nicola Minichiello's dream of sliding to glory like teammate Amy Williams lay in apparent ruins after a disappointing first day during the Olympic women’s bobsleigh in Whistler.

Minichiello and brakewoman Gillian Cooke, who had hoped to strike gold on the same track which saw Williams prevail in the skeleton at the weekend, were lying 10th at the half-way position, a mountainous 1.38sec behind the Canadian leaders and almost a second behind the bronze medal position with two runs remaining.

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RESULTS! Here are your current Figure Skating 2010 Olympics results. Women’s Figure Skating 2010 Olympics ended the short program tonight. In the group were USA’s Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu (from Los Angeles’ Montebello).

Nagasu got a bloody nose through her short program tonight. Performing to Pirates of the Caribbean, she delivered her personal best score - 63.76. Mirai Nagasu however is concerned she is out of the medal contention. That score put her by the end of the night at 6th place.Rachel Flatt is right about her at 5th with a 64.64 tonight.

In first, is Korea’s Ku-Na Kim who has a huge lead of 78.50 in front of second place’s Mao Asada (Japan) witha 73.78. Rounding out the group is Joannie Rochette (Canada) - who lost her mother last weekend as profiled on LALATE - sitting at 71.36 and Miki Ando (Japan) with a 64.76.

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Canada came into their match against the Germans as heavy favorites. That said, make no mistake about it, given the importance of this game, Canada would not take this German squad lightly, especially when it’s do or die form here on out in the tournament.

In light of Martin Brodeur’s sub-par performance against the United States on Sunday night, Canada decided to go with Roberto Luongo between the pipes. On the surface, it would appear as if the Canadian coaching staff was making the right decision, but only time would tell.

A win against the Germans would all butsolidify Luongo as Canada’s No. 1 goalie from this point forward. Not known for strong efforts in big games, Luongo now has the chance he has desired all his life—to be in the spotlight for Team Canada, to be the go-to guy on the big stage that is the Olympics.

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Vancouver: Women’s Figure Skating Olympics 2010: It’s being assumed that this time United States Women’s Figure Skating Team would be taking podium on fire this time.

Reports say that this time Peggy Fleming, Dorthy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan have come up with the better chances.If we go to back to the year 1964, we find out that there were no women on the podium since then.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are different now. This time, Americans qualified to send just two women for the first time since Lillehammer.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A Canada-Russia clash doesn't need any subplots. This rivalry has sold itself for 37½ years.But like it or not, the bitter rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin is impossible to ignore, whether it's when the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals clash or in the pair's only international meeting in the 2005 world junior championship.

Now, the NHL stars are set to face off in one of the biggest games they will ever play against each other in their careers."We know there's a lot of storylines and that's a huge one," Team Canada winger Jarome Iginla said after an 8-2 win over Germany on Tuesday night. "Canada-Russia, the history there, Sid-Ovechkin, for sure. But as players, we're not sitting there watching and wondering about [them]. We want to win that game. We're not looking for [Crosby] to just do it by himself."

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Eve Muirhead shouldered the blame for a disappointing end to her Olympics curling debut and looked forward to appearing in future Games after the 'experience of a lifetime' in Vancouver.Britain's 19-year-old skip struggled with her form as Britain's campaign, which had started promisingly, fell away with five straight round robin defeats.

But veteran Jackie Lockhart predicted Muirhead will be a better player for the experience and her 'fantastic potential' marks her down as one to watch in her next Olympics.After Britain failed to end on a high note, going down 6-5 to table topping hosts Canada, Muirhead's emotions were a mixture of regret and frustration over a disappointing exit and mistakes and hope for the future.'I missed a few crucial draws out there that let us down,' said Muirhead.

'I'm a bit of a perfectionist out there on the ice and I get annoyed if little shots don't come off.'I put the blame on myself because there were a lot of shots that I should be making and they didn't come off.'You feel really bad, that you've let the team down and let a lot of people at home down

'But I've had the experience of a lifetime and hopefully for myself, only 19 years old, you can look forward and have many more to come.'Lockhart, 44, has no doubt that Muirhead will be back. A World Championship-winning skip for Scotland in 2002, Lockhart is well placed to judge an emerging talent and she said: 'It's a huge learn for her and hopefully she'll recover from this and move on because she has so many years in front of her.

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The crowd at the Pacific Coliseum roared when Rochette and four other figure skaters spilled onto the ice to warm up for the ladies' short program, then quieted. If you hadn't been aware of the cataclysmic event that had just cleaved her life into two parts, Before and After, you never would have known that anything was different about the 24-year old from small-town Quebec. This is Rochette's home country, after all, and a fervent welcome was only to be expected.

Rochette looked calm and professional going through her paces, just as she has in training sessions since her mother, Therese, died of an apparent heart attack in a Vancouver hospital early Sunday morning. As the rink emptied, she skated to the boards to speak to her coach, then took a deep breath, in and out.

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