Fleming, Flowers hurt in motorcade crash

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Olympic champions Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers were injured Sunday when a van in Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade crashed, a Biden spokesman said.

The injuries were described as minor. The motorcade was en route an Olympic event in Vancouver, British Columbia, when the collision occurred, Biden spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

"Earlier this afternoon, a van in the vice president's motorcade carrying members of the official U.S. Olympic Games Delegation was involved in a minor accident while traveling to an event," Carney said. "Two members of the delegation, Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers, received minor injuries and were taken to a local hospital as a precaution."

Carney said Fleming, 61, and Flowers, 36, have left the hospital. No one else in the Biden party was injured he said.

Fleming -- a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame -- was U.S. national champion from 1964-68 and world champion from 1966-68. She won an Olympic gold medal in 1968 at Grenoble, France.

Flowers won an Olympic gold medal at Salt Lake City in 2002 as a member of the U.S. bobsled team. She is the first person of African descent to win a Winter Games gold medal.