Italy pulls off a stunner in Olympic men's speedskating team pursuit, earns first gold since 2006

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The Italian men's speedskating team is back on top in team's pursuit. Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti beat U.S. world record-holders Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran by 4 1/2 seconds to win the men's team pursuit gold medal in speedskating on Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Olympics. Buoyed by raucous cheering from the home crowd at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, the Italian men finished in 3 minutes, 39.20 seconds to give their country its first Olympic title in this event since the 2006 Turin Games. The United States started the final well and led for the early stages. But the Italians charged ahead over the closing laps, extending their advantage. When it ended, Ghiotto, Giovannini and Malfatti raised their arms and pumped their fists. On the opposite side of the track, silver medalists Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran leaned over, hands on knees. Canada collected its second consecutive Winter Games title in women's team pursuit when Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann — the same athletes who won gold four years ago in Beijing — finished in 2:55.81, nearly a full second ahead of runner-up Netherlands. Snow postpones women's slopestyle snowboarding The Olympic final for women's snowboarding slopestyle was scrubbed off Tuesday's schedule due to a heavy snowstorm in Livigno. The slopestyle final was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. local time, but organizers said it was called off. A new date for the final has not been announced. It delays New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott's attempt at a repeat. She qualified first on Sunday — an opening round that was moved up a day because of the storms rolling in. Late surge lifts France to gold in biathlon relay France went from last place on the first leg to being first on the final lap to secure the country's first Olympic gold medal in men's biathlon relay. World Cup champion Eric Perrot, skiing the final leg for France, missed two shots in his last standing shooting bout and was only seven seconds ahead of Norway's Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen as they headed out to ski tracks packed with fresh snow. Perrot stayed ahead of Christiansen and took his team of Fabien Claude, Emilien Jacquelin and Quentin Fillon Maillet across the line first, in a time of one hour, 19 minutes and 55.2 seconds. Sweden was able to hang on for the bronze. Norway's Oftebro earns second Nordic combined gold Norway's Jens Luraas Oftebro won his second Nordic combined gold medal in a week, taking the large hill ski jump and 10-kilometer ski race. Johannes Lamparter of Austria earned his second silver in Italy and Ilkka Herola of Finland won bronze. The event begins with a single ski jump in the morning, where distance and style points are calculated to create a time advantage for the best jumper. The rest of the field starts the cross-country ski race behind the leader according to the ranking from their jump. Oftebro, who finished atop the podium in the normal hill competition event last week, started 22 seconds behind in fifth place. Herola started 32 seconds back in seventh place. Support and protest at Nordic combined U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski attended the Nordic combined at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday to cheer for her younger brother Niklas. She came to protest, too. Nordic combined — ski jumping and cross-country in one — remains the only Winter Olympic sport that does not include women, even though women compete on the World Cup circuit and at world championships. "It's heartbreaking, it really is," Annika told The Associated Press while wrapped in a long pink and white coat, before taking her seat in the stands.