By Jim Litke

SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) _ Here's a toast to all those Olympians who didn't start celebrating until they won something.

Hoist a cold one for Fabris and Klassen and Ahn and Raich, and maybe a few for those wacky Kostelic kids, the brother-sister act on skis from Croatia that won more medals than some nations.

These were Games when speaking English meant missing some of the best parties, unless your name was Bode Miller, but not the best feud between winners, a dubious distinction claimed by American speedskaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick.

Italian Enrico Fabris wound up climbing a step higher on the podium than either of those two in his sport's equivalent of track and field's mile and overnight became the most popular thing on ice in this soccer-mad country since Campari.

Until two months ago, this nation of 57 million boasted exactly one Olympic-calibre oval, and even then his countrymen never got around to building a roof over it. Good thing, too, because it might have put a ceiling on Fabris' imagination.

Italy had never won an Olympic medal in ``pattinaggio di velocita'' when Fabris, 24, a dead ringer for actor Adrian Brody, glided to the start line for the 5,000 metres two weeks ago. He began honing his craft on a frozen pond near his hometown of Asiago, then quietly became a world-class competitor and, finally, a revelation by slipping in to grab the bronze medal that Saturday.

But his best was yet to come.

After next leading Italy to a gold in the team pursuit, Fabris won a high-stakes, high-drama shootout in the 1,500 against the heavily favoured duo of Davis and Hedrick and zoomed off with yet another gold.

``Today,'' Fabris said, ``without any arrogance, I'm the king of Italy.''

His three medals may have been the most-trumpeted among the 252 awarded to the top three finishers in 84 events. But Fabris, Canadian long-tracker Cindy Klassen (five medals) and Korean short-tracker Ahn Hyun-soo (four medals) weren't the only ones to take home enough of the bagel-shaped discs to think about hosting a brunch.

Germany won the medal standings with an Olympics-best 11 golds in addition to 12 silvers and six bronzes. The United States was next, with nine golds, nine silvers and seven bronzes, followed by Canada with seven golds, 10 silvers and seven bronzes.

But Austria got the award for efficiency. It came to Italy with 22 skiers from a nation of just 8.1 million people, and left with an Olympic-record 14 of the 30 Alpine medals, including two golds each by Benjamin Raich and Michaela Dorfmeister.

Janica Kostelic, Croatia's one-woman band, was almost as reliable. She became the most decorated female Alpine skier of all time by grabbing a gold in the combined and a silver in the super-G.

But Kostelic was none too happy about having to fight the flu and being forced to hang around while officials delayed the start of the downhill leg of the combined.

``They're stupid,'' Kostelic said.

And if that wasn't enough venting, well, Janica could always return to the Kostelic household and razz older brother Ivica, who won only a silver.

American Shaun White, The Flying Tomato, was eager to share his winning spirit. He showed why snowboarding has been tabbed the Olympics' next big thing by winning the half-pipe and immediately suggested he could parlay his latest accomplishment into a date.

``Everybody found out that I wanted to meet Sasha Cohen ... so they're asking me, 'So, you think Sasha is digging gold medals?''' White said. ``And I'm like, `Couldn't hurt, right?'''

Right. It worked for Italian ski hero Alberto Tomba with two-time skating gold medallist Katarina Witt, but that was 18 years ago and on a different continent. And Cohen may not have been up for it, anyway, after Japan's Shizuka Arakawa beat her and Russia's Irina Slutskaya for figure-skating gold.

In a particularly touching moment, Arakawa used the limelight to plead for more support for her sport back home.

``The rink where I did most of my fundamental training has closed down. It's very sad,'' she said, adding a moment later, ``I'm almost forced to train in the United States.''

That was no guarantee of success in these Olympics, but Americans did finish with their second-best Winter Games haul ever, second only to the 34 medals won at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Among the highlights were Davis' speedskating medal, the first by a black athlete in any individual Winter Olympic sport; golden smiles by fresh-faced skiers Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso, both 21, holding out the promise of more in the future; the boyish glee of Apolo Anton Ohno, who recovered from a bad start to win a gold and two bronze medals; and dazzling performances by White and the rest of his snowboarding posse, who delivered seven medals.

Snowboard cross, a kind of NASCAR on ice, was not only the surprise winner as an event at these Olympics, it provided a kiss between the men's and women's gold medallists that had everybody buzzing.

American Seth Wescott is dating the women's winner, Tanja Frieden of Switzerland. His Swiss miss sneaked in for gold after Wescott's teammate, Lindsey Jacobellis, tried to provide a flourish at the end of her race, slipped and had to settle for silver.

``I started celebrating once Tanja won,'' Wescott said sheepishly. ``Nothing against Lindsey.''

If the two snowboard crossers marry and Frieden becomes an American citizen, the U.S. could have another gold medal import for the next Winter Games in Vancouver.

After all, it worked this time.

Tanith Belbin teamed with Ben Agosto to win silver in ice dancing, the U.S.'s first medal in that event since 1976. ``I am extremely proud that we've been able to achieve this for our country,'' Belbin said.

It's been her country all of two months. A Canadian by birth, Belbin became a U.S. citizen on Dec. 31.