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WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- They don't raise snowboarders in the Netherlands. It's kinda hard when there are no hills.

They do raise speedskaters there, however, and good ones at that.

Nicolien Sauerbreij decided to take the road less traveled, and on Friday, she made history. Skating nimbly over the slush that claimed many of her competitors at mushy Cypress Mountain, Sauerbreij won the women's parallel giant slalom, the first gold medal in snowboarding for a country that's barely above sea level.

Vancouver (AFP) - China won their first Olympic women's ice hockey match in 12 years on Monday when a 3-1 victory over Slovakia gave them a seventh place finish at the Vancouver Games.

Wang Linuo scored two goals and Sun Rui added another in a game where both sides desperately needed a boost after Slovakia had lost three group matches by a combined score of 29-4.

Vancouver (AFP) - The United States broke Canadian hearts on Sunday with a 5-3 Olympic Games hockey victory which condemned the hosts, who started out as gold medal favourites, to a perilous future in the tournament.

The US, who lost the gold medal game at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics to their North American neighbours, shocked Canada to finish on top of Group A with nine points and a place in the quarter-finals.

Whistler (AFP) - America are aiming to shatter Scandinavian hopes at the Olympic Games Nordic Combined team event on Tuesday.

The US team are pinning their hopes on the likes of Johnny Spillane in the competition which combines the large ski jump hill and a 5km cross country ski.

Whistler (AFP) - Finnish veteran Janne Ahonen reached the end of the Olympic line on Sunday when he pulled out of Monday's team ski jump with a knee injury, coach Janne Vaatainen said.

Ahonen, three times a fourth-placed finisher in individual Olympic events, came out of retirement to try to land gold at the age of 32 but failed to qualify for the second round of Saturday's large hill.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Apolo Anton Ohno once featured on South Korean toilet paper but now the short track skater is flush with Olympic medals and a new American record.

With his bronze medal in the 1,000 meters on Saturday, the 27-year-old overtook speedskater Bonnie Blair as the most decorated U.S. winter Olympian with seven medals, each of them won sporting a bandana and a goatee beard.

"I have a nice cake and it keeps getting sweeter with more frosting," Ohno told a news conference.

Vancouver (AFP) - Torah Bright won Australia's first gold of the Vancouver Games in women's halfpipe Thursday, ending long-standing US domination of the sport.

Bright's winning score was 45.00 points, with 2006 champion Hannah Teter of America scoring 42.4 and her team-mate and 2002 gold medallist Kelly Clark on 42.2.

Vancouver (AFP) - Japan's oldest competitor at the Vancouver Games, who used to warn her teammates that the Olympics are often swayed by "devils", says she has finally found them in herself.

Tomomi Okazaki, 38, who won the 500m bronze medal at the 1998 Nagano Games, finished 16th in the same event won by South Korean Lee Sang-Hwa on Tuesday.

Whistler (AFP) - American Lindsey Vonn won the women's downhill gold at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Team-mate Julia Mancuso took the silver with Austrian Elisabeth Goergl winning the bronze.

Alpine speed queen Lindsey Vonn lived up to expectations by winning the United States' first ever Olympic gold in the women's downhill on Wednesday.

Whistler (AFP) - International Ski Federation (FIS) officials insisted Tuesday they are unfazed by weather postponements that are set to force the rescheduling of Olympic ski events this week and next.

After several days of disruption due to adverse weather, mostly heavy snowfall on the men's and women's runs, the men's super-combined was postponed on Tuesday.