Name Was Longer Than the Track

Ganbat Jargalanchuluun didn’t win any medals. In fact, he didn’t make it out of his preliminary heat in short-track speedskating Saturday night, but he left the Games with two distinctions.

At 15 years, 225 days old, the Mongolian athlete was the youngest in these Olympics. And at 15 letters, his last name tied for the longest in the Games with that of Finnish curler Markku Uusipaavalniemi. The 500 was Jargalanchuluun’s only event, which means he waited two weeks to skate for 52.225 seconds, which was about nine seconds slower than the two qualifiers in the heat.

She Probably Can Afford a Really Nice Car

Now that Sarah Hughes has the gold medal in figure skating, she can start working on another big goal.

Getting her driver’s license.

The 16-year-old from Great Neck, N.Y., hasn’t had time to get her license yet, not with all the hours she spends in training. She also has a three-hour round-trip commute each day to the rink in Hackensack, N.J., with coach Robin Wagner doing the driving.

Wagner hopes her chauffeuring days will be over soon.

“I’m really hoping she learns to drive,” Wagner said, laughing. “That’s the next thing we’re working on.”

This Miracle Stuff Can Get Awfully Tiring

United States Coach Herb Brooks has spent more time this month discussing the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” U.S. hockey team than the current group he’s trying to guide to another gold medal.

It was especially inevitable when the United States played Russia a week ago in their first Olympic meeting in America since 1980 and then again Friday when they met on the 22nd anniversary of the famous game.

After a tense finish, Brooks was asked if the last 10 minutes of the game “reminded [him] of anything.”

“Yeah, the last 10 minutes,” Brooks said. “No disrespect. I know where you’re going with that. I don’t want to go that way.”

Part of the problem is that Brooks is seen as the main link to that team.

When that was brought to his attention the other day, Brooks joked that he could be the link “only if Mike Eruzione lets me,” a reference to how Eruzione continues to live as the Man Who Scored the Winning Goal Against the Soviets.

Men Are From Mars, Women Are Different

Ray Bennett, a King assistant coach, was more than a dispassionate spectator Thursday when he watched on television as Canada defeated the United States to win the women’s hockey gold medal.

Bennett was an assistant coach in the Canadian women’s program for two years, helping the Canadians win the gold medal in the World Championships in 1997 and the silver in the Winter Olympics four years ago at Nagano, Japan.

“It was quite emotional for me to watch,” Bennett said of the Canadians’ 3-2 victory at Salt Lake City. “I played no part in it, but I know how I felt after losing [to the U.S. at Nagano] and to see them win was really quite gratifying.”

Coaching the women was a great experience, Bennett said.

“First of all, the girls were really receptive to almost anything,” he said. “That was the big thing I noticed, coming from men’s hockey. A lot of guys carry forward some baggage with them from past coaches. ‘We used to do it this way’--that sort of thing, whereas the girls were always very receptive to what you were trying to introduce, teaching-wise and tactical-wise.

“They just said, ‘OK, if you want us to do it that way, we’ll do it that way.’ That’s a treat.”

Can’t Trust the Swiss to Stay Neutral

It’s no secret the Swiss love their bobsledders, but they finally crossed the line.

The six Swiss flags and four fan club banners in the stands lining the track at the start were fine. It was that big black-and-gray banner that caused a minor stir. On the front was Rigi Tresorbau AG, a company that just happens to be a sponsor for Swiss driver Martin Annen.

It didn’t take Salt Lake officials long to spot it.

“No commercialism is allowed,” said Bryan Hendrickson, a sports supervisor at Utah Olympic Park. “We don’t want them to take advantage.”

Soon, long scarves were draped over the company name.

After Winning Gold, They Could Clean Up

After the men’s and women’s gold-medal curling matches--Norway won the men’s title, Great Britain the women’s--both champions were asked if their victories would boost the sport’s profile in their homelands.

“There’s always going to be people who slag off the sport,” said British captain Rhona Martin. “Hopefully, the TV coverage will help raise the profile back home.”

The women’s gold--Britain’s first Winter Games gold in any sport in 18 years--did cause a bit of a stir. Prime Minister Tony Blair praised the Olympic champions, and Martin and her crew also are being offered a deal to endorse a floor cleaning product.

Brooms, get it?

Funny, but That Sounds a Lot Like an Excuse

Not long ago, Erik Schlopy was more than Bode Miller’s European roommate. He was a proven success in the World Cup, a skier poised to be a hometown hero in the Winter Olympics.

Illness wiped out his training in the late summer and fall, and his World Cup season was awful. After his 14th-place finish in the men’s slalom Saturday, he sought out his family for hugs of consolation as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I don’t want to make excuses,” he said. “As far as the facts go, I had mono, I had bronchitis. I didn’t get to train.”

Net Surfing Could Be Next Olympic Sport

NBC is getting great TV ratings, and NBCOlympics.com and Olympics.com have experienced record traffic through the first 16 days of the Games.

On Thursday, 3.1 million visitors logged onto the sites, a single-day high for these Games, eclipsing the 2.5 million unique users visiting the site one day earlier.

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Times staff writers Mike Kupper, J.A. Adande and Jerry Crowe and Associated Press contributed to this report