Ligety Upstages DQ'd Miller For Gold

Also, U.S. Women's Hockey Team Rallies From 2-Goal Deficit To Win

(CBS/AP)  Not that long ago, Ted Ligety was everything Bode Miller is not: unknown, unsponsored, unaccomplished.

Now, thanks both to his own clean, aggressive skiing and errors by Miller and other favorites, Ligety is an Olympic champion.

Miller still is not.

"It's great to be where I am," the 21-year-old Ligety said, his voice hoarse, "but it's unexpected, that's for sure."

Never before a competitor at a Winter Games, never before a winner of any major race, Ligety produced two spectacular slalom runs to pull out the combined event Tuesday night, only the fourth time in Olympic history an American man has collected a gold medal in Alpine skiing.

As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reports, nobody looked more stunned than Ligety himself - as he scooped the gold in a come-from-behind victory.

A few hours before, it appeared Miller might win that medal. Fastest in the downhill portion of the three-leg event, he was disqualified after straddling a gate in the first slalom.

Check the schedule of upcoming events.

In related developments:

The U.S. women's hockey team rallied from a rare two-goal deficit for a 7-3 victory over Finland on Tuesday. Angela Ruggiero scored the go-ahead goal on an end-to-end rush with 9:44 to play. The U.S. will meet Sweden in Friday's semifinals. Track the current medal count here.

Figure skater Evgeni Plushenko is all but a lock for gold, and everyone else will have to settle for a different color. After finishing second in the short program, the three-time U.S.champion Johnny Weir said it was a race for the silver because Russia's Plushenko is so good. Currently, he is 10 points ahead of Weir.

Figure skater Emily Hughes is due into Turin on Thursday. The newest Olympian's departure from the New York area was delayed by a snowstorm. She'll skate in Turin for the first time on Friday and hold a news conference that day. Hughes is the younger sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes. She's heading to Turin to fill in for injured nine-time national champion Michelle Kwan.

Chris Soule wanted his second shot at the Olympics to arrive under better circumstances. He's a last-minute replacement on the U.S. skeleton team for Zach Lund, who was suspended one year for failing a drug test. He joins a group that has been through weeks of turmoil leading up to the Winter Games. Will a few precious days be enough to prepare for a medal shot? "It has to be. There's nothing else I can do," said Soule, who was seventh at the Salt Lake City Games four years ago.

Speedskater Joey Cheek credits his gold medal in the men's 500 meters to his relaxation skills — and Jessica Simpson? Cheek said he watched the movie "The Dukes of Hazzard" — which featured Simpson as Daisy Duke — before he raced Monday, then "skated out of my head. I've never skated races that well before. For it to come together like this in the Olympics is a real honor," he said.

The American women are shut out of the medals in the 500-meter speedskating race today. Jennifer Rodriquez finished eleventh and Amy Sannes 17th. Wisconsin speedskater Elli Ochowicz of Waukesha finished 23rd and Chris Witty of West Allis came in 28th.

After three days of competition at the Turin Games, organizers are edging closer to their goal for ticket sales. Giuseppe Gattino, head of the TOROC organizing committee said Tuesday that 13,000 tickets were sold Monday, bringing the games' total to 789,000. With 1.03 million tickets available, organizers have set a sales goal of 830,000.

Smog levels in the Winter Olympics host city are in almost daily breach of European Union limits, but authorities said Tuesday that taking measures against air pollution would disrupt the running of the games. Monitoring stations across the city are constantly detecting pollutant levels that are dangerous to human health, said Enrico Garrou, director of the Regional Environment Protection Agency in Turin.

American medal hopeful Lindsey Kildow left the hospital Tuesday, just 24 hours after a harrowing training crash that slammed her into the frozen course at 50 mph, and U.S. team officials said she will try to ski Wednesday's downhill. Kildow was on the official start list submitted for the downhill, although U.S. women's coach Patrick Riml said a final decision would depend on her condition just before the race.

As the U.S. is stocking up on medals, CBS' Manuel Gallegus reports that in just 24 hours freestyle skier Jeremy Bloom could be holding one. It seems that Bloom is good at everything he does, from powdering down the slopes to playing football to modeling. He may even get drafted by the NFL after competing in Turin. "To me its just looking inside myself and pushing myself to the extreme and pushing the limits that s inside of me — just trying to get the fuel and fire to train harder," Bloom told Gallegus.

Hannah Teter won gold (video) and Gretchen Bleiler won silver in the women's halfpipe — one day after fellow Americans Shaun White and Danny Kass finishing 1-2 in the men's competition.

Wendy Wagner and Kikkan Randall are in the finals of the women's cross-country team sprint. It's the first time the Americans have advanced past a semifinal in the event. Randall was back in competition following a five-day suspension for high levels of hemoglobin. She and Wagner placed tenth among the ten teams that qualified for the final, but it was a milestone nonetheless. Wagner plans to retire after the Olympics.

A Brazilian bobsledder is on his way home. He's the first drug case at the Olympics. The sledder tested positive for steroids in a pre-Olympic drug test. A statement on the Brazilian Olympic Committee's Web site says he showed evidence of the steroid nandrolone. Brazilian officials say they have a zero tolerance policy.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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