United States claims its best Winter Olympics

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - So these won't be remembered as the Vonn-couver Olympics after all. It's looking like they will belong to the entire U.S. delegation instead.

The Americans clinched their best Winter Olympics on Friday when Katherine Reutter won silver in women's 1,000- meter short-track speedskating. That was actually only the 33rd, but one each is guaranteed to go to the men's hockey team and the men's team pursuit squad in speedskating. Both have advanced to gold-medal matches in which they can get no worse than silver.

The 35 medals are 1 more than the United States won at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. If all goes well the final two days, the U.S. will lead the overall medals standings for only the second time, and the first since 1932 in Lake Placid.

Speedskating: More agony for Sven Kramer, lots of joy for the United States. The American men upset Kramer and the powerful Dutch team in one team pursuit semifinal, and the U.S. women knocked off Canada in their quarterfinal.

My first thought when we crossed the line was, 'Oh, my God, we beat the Dutch!' " said Brian Hansen of Glenview. "And then I thought, 'Oh, my God, we got a medal!"'

The men will face Canada in the gold-medal race today.

The women will face defending Olympic champion Germany in a semifinal today. Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. of Wheaton helped lead the American team.

Bobsled: Steve Holcomb and his sleek, black four-man bobsled known as the "Night Train" are halfway to gold. Officially known as USA-1, the sled set track records on both its runs, putting it in first place going into the last two heats tonight.

Curling: Canada was denied another gold medal on home ice, getting taken down by a Swedish team that captured its second consecutive gold medal in women's curling. China, competing in its first Olympics, beat Switzerland for the bronze.