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CNN Live Saturday

Last Day of Competition at the Olympics

Aired February 23, 2002 - 18:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The Olympic Games are winding down. There are just a handful of competitions left before tomorrow's closing ceremony. CNN "Sports Illustrated" John Giannone joining us now from Utah with the latest. Hey, John.

JOHN GIANNONE, CNNSI CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Catherine.

Yes, it's the penultimate day of competition. And entering this afternoon, nine gold medals still to be contested, one of them in the men's slalom competition. Body Miller of the United States had already won two silvers. He was going for more hardware in his favorite event, the slalom. Now, Miller was in second place after the first run, but on his second run he fell 15 seconds into the run and fell out of contention.

Now, gold and silver went to a pair of Frenchmen, Jean-Pierre Vidal and Sebastian Amiez (ph), but the real surprise was the bronze medalist. Allen Baxter, a 28-year-old from Attenbourough, Scotland. He becomes the first Alpine skier from Great Britain ever to win an Olympic medal.

Now, more medal possibilities on ice tonight for American short track speed skater Apolo Ohno. He will compete in the 500-meter sprint and the 5,000-meter relay. Earlier today, the Court of Arbitration in Sport rejected South Korea's protest from Wednesday's race, in which Ohno was lifted to the gold medal after South Korea's Kim Dong-Sahn (ph) was disqualified for interference.

More harsh criticism from the Russian contingent here at the Olympics. Russian coach Viacheslav Fetisov of the Russian hockey team repeated his assertion that bias (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from NHL referee Bill McCreary (ph) contributed to Friday's loss to the United States. Fetisov also said that the agreement between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation, in which NHL officials must referee in the Olympics when the predominant number of players are from the NHL contributes to a North American final.

The United States and Canada will play for the gold medal on Sunday. The Russian team won the bronze on Saturday, beating Belarus, but there are still whispers throughout the Olympic community that the Russians may boycott the closing ceremonies on Sunday.

Reporting from the Winter Olympics in Park City, Utah, I'm John Giannone. CALLAWAY: And thank you, John.

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