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Canada’s Cheryl Bernard, right, and Sweden’s Anette Norberg watch a shot during the gold-medal women’s curling match in Vancouver on Friday. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

Cheryl Bernard and her Calgary-based rink of Carolyn Darbyshire, Cori Bartel and Susan O’Connor fell one game small of striking gold in Vancouver on Friday.

The Canadians couldn’t knock off the defending champion Swedish rink of Anette Norberg, Eva Lund, Cathrine Lindahl and Anna LeMoine, taking the silver medal in a 7-6 extra end loss.

The second-place end follows the bronze won by Canada’s Shannon Kleibrink and her rink in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Canada beat the Swedes 6-2 in their round-robin match on Monday, but Bernard said afterward that Norberg’s performance was an aberration, and expected a much more focused and tough game from Sweden in the final.

Bernard got all that and more from the defending champion, who stole her second straight Olympic gold final.

After steals in the sixth and seventh ends place the Canadians on top 6-4 heading into the 10th end, Bernard couldn’t extinguish the Swedish hopes of a repeat gold.

Bernard’s final stone couldn’t knock Norberg’s second last stone out of the house and the Swedes took that break to score the pair and head to the extra end.

As Norberg lined up her last shot in the 11th, the Canadian shot stone was covered by Swedish rock in the four foot. The Swedish skip bumped her own stone to eliminate the Canadian presence in the house and rolled her shooter behind a guard.

Bernard’s attempt at the double came up small, allowing the steal of one, and the gold medal along with it.

Steven Holcomb, centre, and teammates Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curtis Tomasevicz compete in the four-man bobsleigh competition at the Vancouver Olympics on Friday. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Steven Holcomb is on pace to win the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in four-man bobsleigh since 1948.

Holcomb piloted USA 1 to two track records at the Whistler Sliding Centre during the first two runs of the men’s four-man bobsleigh at the Vancouver Olympics on Friday. The American team came to Whistler as a favourite, ranked No.1 in World Cup standings.

Getting incredible starts from his powerful pushmen Curtis Tomasevicz, Steve Mesler and Justin Olsen, Holcomb set the track record with a time of 50.89 seconds on his first run.

On their second run, the Americans finished in 50.86 for a cumulative time of 1 minute 41.75 seconds.

Canada’s Lyndon Rush, of Humbolt, Sask., is in second place. His team of Edmonton’s David Bisset, Calgary’s Lascelles Brown and Chris Le Bihan, of Grande Prairie, Alta., sat in second position after its first run of 51.12 seconds.

On their second run, Rush overcame a poor turn in the first corner and finished in 51.03. With a cumulative time of 1:42.15, Canada 1 is second heading into Saturday’s final two runs.

Rush later called his error on the first turn a “rookie mistake.”

Rush said it will be hard to catch Holcomb, who has a 4-10ths of a second lead over the Canadians.

“He’s laying a whipping on everybody right now,” Rush told CTV. “That’s a lot, especially in four-man bobsleigh.”

German just behind Rush

Germany’s Andre Lange, the most decorated bobsledder in Olympic history, is only 4-100ths of a second behind Rush heading into Saturday’s final runs.

Lange, who won his fourth Olympic gold medal in the two-man bobsleigh on Sunday, nearly flipped on the 13th corner of his second run. He salvaged a run of 51.05, for a cumulative time of 1:42.19.

Edmonton’s Pierre Lueders is sixth, behind Switzerland 1 and Germany 2. Lueders steered his team of Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., Edmonton’s Neville Wright and CFL linebacker Jesse Lumsden of Edmonton, to times of 51.27 and 51.29 on the first and second runs, for a total of 1:42.56.

Lueders was frustrated after his second run, which had been delayed by two earlier crashes on the track.

“Well, when you have two crashes in front of you, what do you expect,” Lueders said before walking away from a CTV interview.

There were six crashes on the 13 corner, nicknamed the 50-50, during the first two runs on Friday.

Canada won its first and only Olympic medal in the four-man bobsleigh in 1964, when Victory Emery steered Canada to gold.