Security measures tightened after potential threat to vice president

Security measures at the Olympics have been tightened in the wake of reports that a mentally ill man sneaked into last week’s opening ceremony with a fake credential and was apprehended in the vicinity of Vice President Joe Biden.

Officials here attempted to downplay the incident.

“It’s very clear to us that at no point was the vice president in danger,” said Cpl. Darren Anderson, a spokesman for the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit. “There was no indication that [the man] intended to harm anybody.”

-- David Wharton

Olympics ratings

NBC reported Thursday that in head-to-head competition with Fox’s “American Idol” on Wednesday night, the Winter Olympics drew 30.1 million viewers to “Idol’s” 18.4 million in the 9-10 p.m. time slot. According to NBC, it was the first time that “American Idol” had been beaten in that time period since 2004.

Biathlon

When Tora Berger won the women’s 15-kilometer individual race, it marked the 100th medal for Norway in the Winter Games, the most of any country. Berger missed one target and easily beat Elena Khrustaleva of Kazakhstan for the gold. Darya Domracheva of Belarus won the bronze.

In the men’s 20-kilometer individual race, Norway again was the winner with Emil Hegle Svendsen beating teammate Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. It was somewhat of a surprise, as Bjoerndalen has won five Olympic gold medals. Sergey Novikov of Belarus tied Bjoerndalen for the silver.

Speedskating

Canada got its third gold medal when Christine Nesbitt won the women’s 1,000 meters. She won by two-hundredths of a second, the closest finish in history in this race. Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands had to settle for the silver while teammate Laurine van Riessen got the bronze.