Turin, Italy ? This was exactly why Italy’s favorite ice dancers came out of retirement.

Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, back after three years off, wowed the crowd and the judges in the Olympic compulsory dance. With Italian flags waving throughout the packed arena, the 2002 bronze medalists waltzed their way back to the top – at least for now.

Their performance outdistanced American medal hopefuls Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who were a surprisingly low sixth heading into Sunday’s original dance. The free dance is Monday night.

Belbin and Agosto were just 1.42 points out of first place, hardly insurmountable at this point.

Skeleton

Cesana, Italy – Duff Gibson of Canada blazed to a gold medal in skeleton, and teammate Jeff Pain slid to silver.

Gregor Staehli of Switzerland won the bronze.

The troubled U.S. team, which came into the games red-faced thanks to a pile of pre-Turin embarrassment, is leaving with zero medals after winning three at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

Alpine Skiing

Sestriere, Italy – Defending champion Janica Kostelic, who missed the downhill because of illness, positioned herself for a gold-medal showdown with rival Anja Paerson in the Olympic Alpine combined event – only to say she might be too sick to start today’s downhill portion.

American Lindsey Kildow endured another painful fall, though this time she was able to walk away.

Cross-Country Skiing

Pragelato, Italy – Andrus Veerpalu defended his Olympic 15km classical title to give Estonia its third gold medal of the Turin Games – all in cross country.

Veerpalu finished in 38 minutes, 1.3 seconds to beat silver medalist Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic by 14.5 seconds. Germany’s Tobias Angerer won his first individual Olympic medal by taking the bronze, 19.2 seconds back in a race skied in fresh snow.

Veerpalu’s countrywoman Kristina Smigun has won two golds at these games.

Ski Jumping

Pragelato, Italy – Austria’s Thomas Morgenstern had superior style to edge Finland’s Janne Ahonen in qualifying for today’s large hill ski jumping event.

Morgenstern and Ahonen both had jumps of 136 meters on the large hill, but Morgenstern’s better form earned him 136.8 points to Ahonen’s 136.3.

Austria’s Andreas Kofler was third with 133.8 points after a leap of 133.5 meters.

Curling

United States men 7, Switzerland 3

Pinerolo, Italy – The U.S. men are rolling in the first round of the Olympics.

The Americans (4-2) beat Switzerland (3-3) and moved into a second-place tie in the curling round-robin tournament.

Canada and Finland are also 4-2. Britain (5-1) took sole possession of first place with a win over Sweden (3-4).

Russia 8, United States women 7

Pinerolo, Italy – The U.S. women’s curling team lost in extra ends to Russia, ending any real chance of reaching the medal round.

In other games, Sweden (5-1) beat Switzerland (4-2) and Canada (4-2) beat Britain (3-2) in nine ends. Norway (4-2) beat Italy (1-4) in 11 ends, or innings.