Torch Is Passed: Vancouver Marks End of Era for Some Winter Stars

Goodbye, Bode. Farewell, Apolo. Godspeed, Clara. We loved you. And now you're gone.

Vancouver 2010 will be known as the biggest change-up in Winter Olympic history. Athletes who came in as young juniors during compelling Olympic times -- the introduction of snowboard, skeleton, women's bobsled; and it all taking place in North America -- are now full-grown adults. They are retiring either at the end of this Olympics, or before the next one. We won't see them again in the Games.

They are the athletes who have dominated for nearly a decade, and most went out with golden glory. Bode Miller, who has won more World Cups than any other American ski racer, won three medals in Vancouver, a bronze in the downhill, silver in super G and gold in the combined. Apolo Ohno retires with eight Olympic medals won during his career; two golds, two silvers, four bronzes. Of those, a silver and two bronze medals were won in Vancouver, and there's controversy about a DQ that many dispute, saying Ohno was disqualified simply to prevent him from winning another gold medal. Clara Hughes, one of only five athletes who've won medals in both the summer and winter Games, will be hanging up her speedskates.

Hughes, one of Canada's most beloved athletes, won a 2010 bronze in her signature 5,000 meter race. She started her huge medal collection by winning bronze in both the individual road race and the individual time trial in cycling at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. She then won bronze in speedskating's 5,000 meter in the Salt Lake City Games, took it to gold at the 2006 Torino Olympics and also got a silver as part of the team pursuit, by then her fifth Olympic medal.

The volatile Chad Hedrick, who over the years would often invite fans to lunch when he ended his day's practice at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Oval, retires with a silver medal in team pursuit, his fifth Olympic medal.

Gone forever are the familiar names that winter sports fans wait to watch -- some who leave a sense of unfinished business, like Noelle Pikus-Pace and Zach Lund, both of skeleton. In 2006, both were world dominant; medal favorites. Then, drama. Pikus-Pace had her leg shattered by a badly driven bobsled before those Games and could not compete. Coming back in 2010, she ended up just out of the medals, in fourth place. Lund, who was already living in the 2006 Olympic Village, was falsely accused of doping by Canadian drug czar Dick Pound, who knew that Canada's skeleton pilot would win if Lund were banished. Lund was kicked out of the Games. The medal he deserved was not to be. He came in fifth in Vancouver.

The U. S. ski team will lose more racers than any other winter sport. Steve Nyman, 28; Marco Sullivan, 29; Jake Zamansky, 28; ski cross former downhillers Daron Rahlves, 36; and Casey Puckett, 37. Ted Ligety will compete one more year, then retire, no more Olympics for him.

Some achieved their Olympic dream in Vancouver. Maelle Ricker, who was a young snowboarder on the Canadian team when the sport made its Olympic debut in 1998, then crashed and ended up in the hospital in 2006, finally got her gold. She won it in snowboard cross. And one of the most sentimental retirements is that of pairs figure skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (above), of China. The married couple have been competing together for nearly 20 years, but have never done better than a bronze in 2002 and another in 2006; though a gold medal was something they craved with all their hearts. They retired in 2007 after winning the World Championship, following long fighting with each other that finally required a choice: their marriage or a possible Olympic gold medal. But by May of 2009, they were back, both in their mid-30's, ancient for figure skaters. They said they came back for one last chance at that elusive gold. Still in love, still married, in Vancouver they finally stood on the top step of the victory podium, watching their country's flag raised and listening to their national anthem.

There are many more who are leaving. There will be new faces and new stories at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. But the athletes retiring now have made history, and they will be legends forever. It was good to know them.