March 10, 2010

No American athlete felt greater Olympic pressure than Lindsey Vonn, the two-time World Cup overall champion, who was expected to win at least two gold medals. After badly bruising her right shin...

With the spotlight focused on Lindsey Vonn, her U.S. teammates skied as if they had nothing to lose—and turned in a performance for the ages. Bode Miller (left), who had bombed at Turin in 2006,...

The ever-changing conditions and challenging courses at Whistler took their toll on some of the world's best skiers. The U.S.'s Marco Sullivan (left) tumbled hard in the men's downhill on Day 4...

German biathlete Magdalena Neuner came to Vancouver a favorite in more ways than one—a former World Cup overall champion who's ranked first in the world in pursuit this year, she's also one of her...

The last time Canada hosted the Winter Olympics, in Calgary in 1988, the U.S. was the weakling of Nordic combined, lagging so far behind the rest of the world in the sport—a mix of ski jumping and...

If the two-four-six finish in the individual normal hill had announced the U.S.'s arrival, the remaining two events proved its dominance. On Day 12, the Americans—Johnny Spillane (left) Brett...

Skicross's Olympic debut injected another dose of adrenaline into the ever-more-daredevil Games. While (from left) Filip Flisar of Slovenia, Chris Del Bosco of Canada and Sweden's Tommy Eliasson...

To the public he's a carefree, red-maned mop-top once charmingly, and harmlessly, nicknamed the Flying Tomato. But on the mountain, U.S. halfpipe king Shaun White turns into someone else entirely:...

The Americans had hoped for a sweep. The trio of defending champion Hannah Teter (above and right), 2006 silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler and 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark were three of only four...

It was the best Valentine's Day gift a Canadian athlete could have delivered. Shortly after 6 p.m. Vancouver time on Feb. 14, a 22-year-old Montrealer named Alexandre Bilodeau (4) bounded and...

U.S. aerialist Jeret (Speedy) Peterson (left) is a daredevil among daredevils. In a sport that requires an athlete to ski straight down a mountainside onto a steep takeoff ramp, shoot five stories...

Going into the 1,000 meters at the Richmond oval, defending champion Shani Davis (left) of the U.S. knew he had "a little thing on [my] back called a target." The first African-American to win...

Apolo Ohno (right, front) explained the crazy finish in simple terms: "There was a lot of bumping, a lot of contact. I got tangled up. That's short-track. Anything is possible." Indeed, Ohno's...

The knives were out after the men's final on Day 7, when Evan Lysacek (left) of the U.S. dethroned reigning Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko (above) in an upset that left the Russian and his...

She is the most popular personality in her home country, and now Kim Yu-na (right) of South Korea is the undisputed queen of figure skating. Performing a free skate of unparalleled brilliance on...

Sports Illustrated

Olympic outfits are designed to maximize performance and protection—think speedskating's skintight suits and hockey's full body armor. Then there's ice dancing, where athletics and aesthetics...

Even before the Games began, Whistler's Olympic luge track had worried some sliders and coaches because of the excessive speeds it generated. After the Day 1 tragedy, officials erected padding and...

"Other drivers ask me how I steer a certain curve," says USA 1 pilot Steve Holcomb (right, in helmet), "and I can't really tell them. You have to feel it." Holcomb developed his uncanny driving...

The best place to see tense duels, wild pants, Scandinavian royals and Pamela Anderson was Vancouver Olympic Centre, home to 12 days of curling craziness. In front of fans honking like Canada...

It was all but inevitable that Canada and the U.S., the only countries to have won Olympic gold, would meet in the 2010 final. So dominant were the North American teams in the tournament—Canada...

Team Canada goalie Roberto Luongo (above) called it "an unbelievable stage." In the most important hockey game ever played in Canada—and the last event of the Olympics—the hosts battled the U.S....

A rundown of the 258 medals awarded, including Winter Olympics record totals of 37 overall to the U.S. and 14 gold to Canada

More than 2,500 athletes from 83 countries traveled to Vancouver in pursuit of the Olympic ideal: Faster, Higher, Stronger. One of them gave his life for it. The death of Georgian luger Nodar...

Photographing the Winter Games for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED was itself an Olympian effort, years in the making. SI director of photography Steve Fine (right) first visited Vancouver in...

They began on a day of celebration following a tragedy. Just hours before the opening ceremonies of the XXI Winter Games in Vancouver (above), Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, was killed...