Most successful Winter Games ever for Utahns

TORINO, Italy — With the first gold medal ever won by a native-born Utahn — Park City skier Ted Ligety in Alpine combined — and a silver medal from Orem's Shauna Rohbock in women's bobsled, the Torino Olympics, from an athletic participation standpoint, have to go down as Utah's most successful Winter Games ever.

In addition, any number of U.S. Olympians who maintain part-time residences in Utah for training purposes shined in Torino, including gold medal-winning speedskaters Joey Cheek and Chad Hedrick and Park City Winter School graduate Julia Mancuso, who won skiing gold in women's giant slalom.

By the numbers, here's how the dozen homegrown Utahns who participated in the Torino Winter Olympics finished:

1 — Ted Ligety, Park City, gold medalist in alpine combined. Ligety also skied in men's giant slalom and slalom, but because of a missed gate and straddled gate, respectively, did not record a result in either final.

2 — Shauna Rohbock, Orem, silver medalist in women's two-person bobsled (with brakewoman Valerie Fleming).

6 — Steven Holcomb, Park City, and Bill Schuffenhauer, Ogden, in four-man bobsled (with teammates Curt Tomasevicz and Lorenzo Smith II). Holcomb and Schuffenhauer also finished 14th in two-man bobsled.

8 — Preston Griffall, Salt Lake City, in doubles luge (with partner Dan Joye).

10 — Wendy Wagner, Park City, in cross country sprint relay (with partner Kikkan Randall). Wagner was one of the busiest Olympians, racing in four events. The 32-year-old two-time Olympian also placed 14th in the 4X5 relay (with teammates Kikkan Randall, Sarah Konrad and Rebecca Dussault), 35th in individual sprint and 50th in the 10-kilometer classic race.

14 — Anders Johnson, Park City, in men's team ski jumping on the big hill (with teammates Tommy Schwall, Clint Jones and Alan Alborn — out of 16 teams).

15 — Joe Pack, Park City, in men's freestyle aerials. Pack, the silver medalist from 2002, narrowly missed qualifying for the 12-man finals.

19 — Steven Nyman, Orem, in men's downhill. Skiing in his first Olympics, Nyman also placed 30th in alpine combined and 43rd in Super G.

38 — Brett Camerota, Park City, in nordic combined's Gunderson 15K event (ski jumping off the normal hill and a 15-kilometer cross country ski race).

39 — Eric Camerota, Park City, in nordic combined's sprint 7.5K event (ski jumping off the big hill and a 7.5-kilometer cross country ski race).

DNS — Zach Lund, Salt Lake City, men's skeleton. Although Lund was named to the U.S. Olympic Team, his stay in Torino was short-lived when an international sports arbitration court handed down a one-year suspension on the day of the opening ceremonies after reviewing Lund's case of unknowingly ingesting a steroid-masking agent in an anti-baldness cream.

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E-mail: lbenson@desnews.com