Ripe Tomato: U.S. picks up gold with snowboarder Shaun White

BARDONECCHIA, Italy -- The Flying Tomato got his gold.

Redheaded snowboarding superstar Shaun White punked the competition on the halfpipe Sunday, beating out teammate Danny Kass to win the Olympic gold medal that so many expected him to get.

"I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I can't explain it," White said after a tearful celebration with his parents at the bottom of the hill.

It capped another dominating day in snowboarding for the Americans, who fell one bronze medal short of repeating their history-making sweep of 2002.

A solid run by third-place finisher Markuu Koski of Finland wrecked those hopes.

Still, this day can hardly be deemed a disappointment for the United States, desperately in need of some good news after busts on the Alpine and moguls courses this weekend.

It was no surprise that White supplied the magic. Wearing a stars-and-stripes bandanna over his chin, his mop of red hair peeking out from under the helmet, he soared through the crystal blue sky for the winning score of 46.8 on his first run of the finals.

That run offered the typical brilliance from this California kid, a 19-year old who got his first endorsement deal six years ago.

With AC/DC's "Back In Black" blaring over the sound system, White practically touched the sky on his first jump, soaring about 25 feet over the edge of the pipe. He came back with consecutive 1080-degree jumps, grabbing his board on both, which earns big style points from the judges. Then, it was a pair of 900s -- one off the frontside wall and another off the backside -- each of them high enough that he could pretty much look down and pick his landing spot on the snow.

"I've been told the backside 9 was the one that helped me a lot, because no one's really spinning backside," he said.

In halfpipe finals, riders get two trips down the chute and only their best score counts. After White's winning run, he waited and watched the 11 riders take their second trip. Nobody could best his score, though, and when the second-to-last rider, Koski, fell on his final jump, White knew he had the gold wrapped up.

He threw his fists in the air, hugged his coaches, sat down to celebrate, then stood at the top and waved to the crowd.

Downhill for Miller

Antoine Deneriaz of France, the last man out of the gate with a chance to win, pulled off a startling upset in the Olympic downhill to steal what seemed to be a sure gold medal from Michael Walchhofer of Austria.

Walchhofer settled for silver, 72-hundredths of a second behind the winner. Bruno Kernen of Switzerland was third.

The ballyhooed U.S.-Austrian rivalry was a bust.

Bode Miller was the top American, in fifth place. U.S. teammate Daron Rahlves, the pre-race favorite, was a disappointing 10th, 1 1/2 seconds slower than Deneriaz.

The 30th skier down the mountain, Deneriaz won in 1 minute, 48.80 seconds.

Kjetil-Andre Aamodt of Norway was fourth, six-hundredths of a second shy of his eighth Olympic medal.

Deneriaz, 29, had finished no better than sixth in a World Cup race this season, and that was a super-G.

Ohno stumbles in heat

Apolo Anton Ohno stumbled out of a chance at gold in his first Olympic event, a shocking start to these Winter Games for the American star.

Ohno nearly fell with 1 1/2 laps to go in a semifinal heat of the 1,500 meters. His mistake ruined any chance to defend his Olympic title in a much-anticipated showdown against South Korea's 1-2 punch -- Ahn Hyun-soo and Lee Ho-suk.

Ahn won the gold and Lee the silver. China's JiaJun Li took the bronze.

U.S. women pepper Germany

Sarah Parsons scored two goals and Pam Dreyer stopped 10 shots in the Americans' second straight shutout victory in the preliminary round.

Katie King had a goal and two assists, and Jenny Potter had a goal and an assist. Natalie Darwitz also scored for the Americans, who outshot Germany 60-10. The result actually was a small victory for the Germans (0-2), who stayed closer to the United States (2-0) than ever before: In all seven of the teams' previous meetings, the Germans lost by at least six goals.

-- From wire reports