Good ol Texas boy captures gold

Speedskater takes America's first gold of the Torino Games.

Two hours before the most important race of his career, U.S. speed skater Chad Hedrick was a calamity. Thirteen years ago to this very day, his grandmother, Geraldine Hedrick - "my buddy" - died of brain cancer. The combination of grief, cabin fever - he arrived in Torino twelve days before the Games ("rolling around in bed takes it toll on you") - and the pressure of his first Olympic race drove Hedrick to tears. And into the stands, where friends and family tried to calm his down. "I kind of felt like a sissy," says Hedrick. TIME