Winter Olympics Week Two of Betting Odds

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are into their second week, and there are still plenty more medals to be won on the mountains, skating rinks and at the online sports books.

Short track speed skating is one of the closest equivalents the Winter Games have to the Summer Olympics discipline of speed skating, and the team pursuits are the equivalents of the relays.

The men's 5000m, which will be completed on Saturday, a day before the opening ceremony, is shaping up as a tight affair. South Korea, buoyed by Lee Jung-su's gold medal in the 1000m race, are an 11/20 Ladbrokes favorite in a contest pitting Asia's two best teams and North America's two best teams on the same rink. Hosts Canada, 7/4, are second favorites, followed by the USA, 7/1, and China 12/1.

The same four countries are represented in the women's 3000m final, which will be held two days earlier on Thursday. However, the order of favoritism is different: China are hot 3/10 favorites, followed by South Korea, 9/5, Canada 10/1, and the USA, 12/1.

Paddy Power is, as usual, offering the most unusual betting options, including one on how close Ghana's "Snow Leopard" Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong will come to winning the giant slalom. Unfortunately for Acheampong, he seems most likely to finish more than 60 seconds from the gold, at odds of 4/7.

Finally, most eyes remain on the flagship men's ice hockey tournament. Canada remain on track to take the gold, with William Hill offering evens. Russia, 9/4, Sweden, 6/1, and the United States, 8/1, remain the only realistic chances of threatening the hometown favorites.