LES SAISIES, France -- "It hurt."
Josh Thompson may have been in pain after negotiating 20 kilometers of Alpine hills yesterday afternoon, but his 16th-place finish gave the United States its best showing in the biathlon in 20 years.
"It was like a slugger derby out there with all those killer climbs," Thompson said of the spectacular Olympic course that has been mitered into the firs and granite here near Mont Blanc.
Evgeny Redkine, whose name in Russian means "big radish," won the gold medal for the Unified Team of former Soviet republics in 57 minutes, 34.4 seconds. Mark Kirchner of Germany took the silver medal as Mikael Lofgren of...