Had the Winter Olympics in Turin, which ran from Feb. 10 to Feb. 26, ended three days earlier, the Czech team would have been sent home with a minor headache.

While the team's performance up to that point couldn't be considered a failure, many of its members didn't live up to expectations.

But cross-country skier Kateřina Neumannová's epic finish to her Olympic career Feb. 24 gave the national team a happy ending to the Turin games.

Neumannová, who won medals in the two previous Winter Olympics but had never stood atop the podium, came from behind to win the women's 30-kilometer (19-mile) freestyle race Feb. 24.

To take home gold in her final Olympics must have been sweet enough, but the experience was made even sweeter by her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Lucie, who was the first person to congratulate her mother at the finish line.

Neumannová also won a silver medal in the women's skiathlon Feb. 11.

On the men's cross-country skiing team, only Lukáš Bauer took home a medal, a silver in the men's 15-kilometer race. For the national ice hockey team, which won a bronze medal in what was a disappointing tournament, the Turin games were a lesson in the narrow margin between success and debacle.

Overall, the Czech team brought four medals home: one gold, two silvers and one bronze. The team did better than in the previous games in Salt Lake City, where it won three medals. The team, however, had higher ambitions this time around, with some optimists predicting an eight-medal performance before the games started.

Here are the highs and lows of the Czech team's campaign in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

The highs

It is possible that not even a gold medal performance by the Czech national ice hockey team would have eclipsed the heroic Olympic finish of cross-country skier Kateřina Neumannová.

Two years after returning to competition from maternity leave, Neumannová made it clear before the Olympics that she was aiming for gold.

In her first competition in Turin, Neumannová was narrowly defeated by Estonia's Kristina Smigun in the women's skiathlon.

"This time, I feel like I lost the gold rather than winning the silver," Neumannová said at the time.

In the 30-kilometer race, Neumannová was in the lead for most of the battle and the field gradually shrank to Justina Kowalczyk of Poland and Julia Tchepalova of Russia. Neumannová fell behind with only a few dozen meters remaining to the finish, but the 33-year-old veteran came from behind in a remarkable gold medal finish.

"It was a miracle," Neumannová said. "I don't know where I got the power to do this. It seemed like someone was pushing me ahead."

Like Neumannová, Lukáš Bauer had a disappointing start to the Olympics. He led the pack for most of the Feb. 12 men's skiathalon but ended up finishing in 10th place.

"The good [part of that race] was that I realized I could do well here," Bauer said. Bauer proved his words, taking silver in the men's 15-kilometer classic competition.

For the national ice hockey team, a bronze medal finish wasn't enough to impress fans. The team's weak results in the preliminary round created more cause for worry than hockey fever here. Breaking with their original plans, the team decided not to return home to celebrate the medal.

Speed skater Martina Sáblíková gave the team's most surprising performance. The 18-year-old shocked the skating world with her fourth place finish in the women's 5-kilometer race. Given her youth, Sáblíková likely has a bright Olympic future. She has already said she wants to win two medals in the next winter games, in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010.

The lows

Ski jumper Jakub Janda had dominated World Cup races all season, which he was hoping would carry over to the games in Turin. His best result, however, was 10th place in the big hill event.

The only Czech gold medal winner from the Winter Olympics in Utah, freestyle skier Aleš Valenta, failed to defend his Olympic title. Valenta failed to even qualify for the final competition after falling during the qualification round.

Off the ice and snow, the Czech team suffered some embarrassing moments. The worst involved the men's cross-country ski relay team.

The team was a serious medal contender until its manager, Květoslav Žalčík, wrote the wrong name into the starting sheet. Instead of writing in Milan Šperl, who was to be the last member of the relay, Žalčík penciled in Dušan Kožíšek, a substitute who should have been entered in the line below.