U.S. figure skater Flatt wants to 'kick some butt'

Rachael Flatt wants to kick some butt and Mirai Nagasu is threatening to bust out a quad. Not even the presence of the "Queen" scares them.

The American figure skaters know nobody's picking them to win anything at the Vancouver Games, let alone Olympic gold. They know all the attention is on South Korea's Kim Yu-na. They know they don't have a lot of ice cred when it comes to the big stage.

And you know what? They don't much care.

"Coming in as an underdog certainly helps," said Flatt, the U.S. champion. "Mirai and I are both incredibly excited to go out there and kick some butt."

"We're 16 and 17, which has its advantages and disadvantages," said Nagasu, who is, for the record, the 16-year-old. "[Kim] does have more international experience and she has more experience in her skating because she's been skating longer. Because we don't know what she knows yet, we can just go in there with a blank mind and attack out there and have fun."

There's been a seismic shift in skating's balance of power since Sasha Cohen won the silver medal at the Turin Games. No U.S. woman has medaled at worlds since 2006. For only the second time since 1924, the United States has only two women in the field.

Biathlon to SlovakianSlovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina won her first Olympic gold medal, capturing the 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint. Germany's Magdalena Neuner took the silver, 1.5 seconds behind Kuzmina. Marie Dorin of France won the bronze. The top American was Sara Studebacker, of Boise, Idaho. She finished in 45th.

Protests get rowdierPolice in riot gear confronted more than 200 masked protesters who hurled newspaper boxes through the display windows of a popular department store selling Olympic souvenirs. Seven people were arrested after officers carrying clubs and shields quashed the downtown protest on the opening day of competition at the Vancouver Olympics. - AP