TURIN, Italy - In the surest sign yet that curling has reached the big time, the stone-and-broom game has joined other Olympic endeavors with a nude calendar of its own.

"It's about time," said Paal Trulsen, the skip of the Norwegian men's team. "It's a fun thing, but we want curling to be just like other sports. We had the doping thing, now we have the calendar."

The Ana Arce Team Sponsorship Calendar is being peddled during the Turin Olympics as curling makes its quadrennial appearance in the spotlight. The black-and white-pictures feature female curlers from Italy, Denmark, Spain, England, Poland, Germany, Austria and Canada, with a brief description of their athletic and sometimes academic achievements.

"Who better to represent the month of March, when many curlers are thinking of Taarnby, than Camilla Jensen?!" the calendar asks - a rhetorical question if there ever was one.

"If you have curled in charming Kitzbuhel" - and who hasn't? - "you probably know the equally charming Toth sisters!" says the April caption under the photo of Austrian champion Claudia Toth.

Since the models are distinctly without their uniforms, the only sign of a curling connection is the stone used as a prop in the cover photo of Ana Toth, the Austrian skip who used to date U.S. skier Bode Miller. The months are numbered 1-12, in Roman numerals, to make the calendar useful for curling buffs - er, fans - around the world who don't want to bother with translations.

September's model is Lynsay Ryan, a Canadian provincial champion and the daughter of Olympic gold medalist Penny Schantz-Henderson and world champion Pat Ryan. Arce, whose picture graces May, has represented Andorra and Spain at four European Championships.

The money from the calendar goes to the national programs in the participants' countries.

"This is a tasteful, artistic product that will help the athletes raise much needed funds for training and competition," Arce said. "This proves that curlers are athletes. Strong but graceful, and of course very beautiful."

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BREAKING THE MOLD: Skeleton racer Anja Huber is used to being different.

The 22-year-old German calls herself "the only skeleton girl in Bavaria."

Luge is far more popular than skeleton in Germany's Bavaria region - home to five-time Olympic luge medalist and three-time champion Georg Hackl.

Added to that, Huber was the only one to crash in skeleton training Wednesday on the ultra-fast Cesana track.

"I had six training runs and that's not enough for a fast race," she said. "I was the only skeleton girl who crashed here yesterday in training. It hurts, it's not much fun."

Huber luged for 12 years before switching to skeleton two years ago.

"I was a luger before so I know all the crash situations," she said.

She was unharmed after her spill, and placed eighth in Thursday's medal race - won by Maya Pedersen of Switzerland.

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TRADING PLACES: Japanese skeleton racer Eiko Nakayama has seen two sides of the Olympics - as a reporter and an athlete.

At the 1998 Nagano Games, she was a reporter on a local newspaper covering bobsled and luge events. Eight years later, she placed 14th in the women's skeleton medal event.

"I was very scared on the top part of the track," Nakayama said. "My result was not good for me. So I don't know if I'll continue or not. I must be better."

If her skeleton career doesn't work out, she could be at a loss.

Don't count on her reporting again.

"The Japanese media is no good," Nakayama said. "They only get excited about Olympics but not the rest."

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VOWING TO RETURN: Hard-luck snowboarder Jayson Hale, who missed the first Olympic snowboardcross because of a knee injury in training, says he believes the glory of the games still awaits him.

In fact, he already has a house rented in Vancouver for the next Winter Olympics.

"I will be sitting on that podium in 2010," said Hale. "That was my plan this time. I was riding well and feeling like I could until I got injured, but I'll be there.

The 20-year-old Hale stood in his white, pinstriped U.S. snowboard team outfit, leaning on crutches as he watched fellow American Seth Wescott win the gold medal. He was in good spirits after the final race.

"It was awesome to see my American boy pull through and win it, so now I'm fired up," he said.

Hale, of Sugarbowl, Calif., tore ligaments in his right knee when he crash landed from a jump.

"I actually knew right away that it wasn't going to be good and I was pretty bummed out knowing that I wasn't going to be racing. I've wanted to go to the Olympics since I was 9," he said.

He said the injury was fluky and he had no regrets about taking an aggressive approach to the fateful training run.

"You know the risk of boardercross," he said, using the name given to the same event in the X-Games. "I was trying to find a better, faster line, and you know, that's just the risk you've got to take."

Alternate Graham Watanabe, who planned to do nothing more than assist the wax technicians, ended up racing instead. He qualified for the finals but was eliminated in the first of four rounds of heat races after Italian Tommaso Tagliaferri collided with him, causing him to crash.