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Headline RSS FeedVail's Vonn misses gold in super-G but still manages bronze
February 20, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE – It wasn't another gold, but Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) earned her second Olympic medal with a gutsy bronze in Saturday's super G. Austria's Andrea Fischbacher sped down in the day's fastest time, while Slovenia's Tina Maze edged out Vonn for the silver.
Vonn, who has already clinched the 2010 World Cup super G discipline title with two races remaining, raced from the 17th spot and cruised to more than a half-second advantage over the field. She lost critical tenths on the bottom section, however, and Fischbacher held onto a more aggressive line two spots later for a .74-second lead.
"When I came down to the finish and saw No. 1 next to my name, I thought 'Hopefully, this is another gold medal,'" she said. "Obviously, that wasn't the case, but I did my best, and I'm definitely very, very proud of another Olympic medal.
Vonn, who won gold in the World Championship downhill and super G a year ago, came into Vancouver with hopes for a medal and now has downhill gold and super G bronze.
"I'm a double Olympic medalist, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to say, she said. "I obviously would have loved to have a gold medal today, but Olympic medals are never very easy to come by."
Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) for a while seemed poised to collect her third medal of these Games after storming out of the gate first for a lead that held through 12 skiers until Germany's Maria Reisch beat her out by .04 seconds.
Mancuso lost time on a tricky corner in the Frog Bank. In Wednesday's downhill (where she won silver), the banking of the hill carried racers through the turn , and Mancuso brought too much speed into the section.
"It surprised me a lot," she said. "I thought it would be similar to the downhill, where the bank would take you around. But the bank didn't take you around, it compressed you so it shot you on your tails."
She somehow stayed on her feet through a sweeping left turn in the backseat, but Mancuso got sucked low and lost time. Still, despite that mistake, flat light, and a challenging start position, she finished just .62 seconds out of the medals.
"I felt my run was strong," Mancuso said. "It was that mistake. Without that mistake, I think I would have been in there, even without the light.
"When I watched Maria's run and she beat me by four-hundredths, I was bummed. But she beat me by a second in the section I made my mistake."
Nonetheless, Mancuso owns the most medals ever by a U.S. woman after adding silvers in downhill and super combined to her giant slalom gold in Torino.
"I have nothing to lose," she said. "I'm really, really proud of my Olympic career so far – a gold and two silvers. I'm not going into the GS ranked the best, but I've been training well and skiing really well. And I'm excited to go in there and give my best."
Leanne Smith (Conway, NH) was 18th for a solid finish in her first Olympic super G, while Chelsea Marshall's (Pittsfield, VT) Games debut ended suddenly when she took out a gate in the challenging Frog Bank and did not finish.
Mancuso and Vonn will try to add to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team's medal count when they take back to Franz's Run for the giant slalom on Wednesday, with the first run at 10 a.m. PT.
"I don't have any regrets on any of my races here," Vonn said. "I definitely gave it everything I had every day. Especially on super G, it's difficult. If you look back, you can always find places where you could have made up time, but having only one inspection and no training runs, it's difficult to always know how aggressive you can ski and how the line is going to run and what the speed is going to be. Given the circumstances - a lot of girls had trouble today - and given everything, I think today was a really solid result."
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Whistler Creekside – Feb. 20
Women's Super G
Gold – Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 1:20.14
Silver – Tina Maze, Slovenia, 1:20.63
Bronze – Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:20.88
4. Johanna Schnarf, Italy, 1:20.99
5. Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 1:21.14
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9. Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 1:21.50
18. Leanne Smith, Conway, NH, 1:23.05
DNF – Chelsea Marshall, Pittsfield, VT
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Americans keep piling up podiums as Miller, Weibrecht grab silver, bronze in super-G
February 20, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, BC – Friday saw another banner day for the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, as Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) added super G silver to medals in three other disciplines while Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) rocketed to bronze in the performance of a lifetime.
Less than 24 hours after Julia Mancuso's super combined silver tied him for the most Olympic hardware by a U.S. skier, Miller added yet another medal with a breathtaking run. His time withstood all challengers until Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal skied to a dramatic gold on the Dave Murray course.
"It is representative of where my ski career has always been at, where my desire has always been at," said Miller, the 2005 Super G World Champion before a DNF in Torino. "I've always believed in skiing all the events and trying to win all the events. I've been a really strong big event skier since I was little."
Miller roared through the top section of the course, going up more than two tenths on Weibrecht, the early leader from the third spot. Miller lost some time on the Coach's Corner – a steep, sweeping turn toward the end of the course – but held on to nudge his teammate out of first by .02 seconds.
"The first 30 seconds, I was absolutely cutting off the line, the maximum I could do, and made no errors," Miller said. "I got bounced around a little bit. When the snow changed on the bottom, I ran into the same problem I did in the downhill," he said.
"I thought I would have been fifth or sixth, but when you look at the times, I easily could have been. This is as close as any race I've seen between second and fifth or sixth place."
In fact, just .12 seconds separated second and seventh place in icy conditions that tripped up many of the top contenders.
Svindal had the cleanest run of the day, gaining time at the bottom where Bode said he "ran out of gas a little bit."
"Not that it would have made that much difference," Miller said. "It may have cleared a couple of hundredths off guys, but I don't think I would have gotten Aksel."
Weibrecht's early pace came as a surprise to those looking at his past results – where 11th in Kitzbuehel, Austria, the last two seasons stood as his best performance in an elite super G.
"I haven't ever come down leading a race," Weibrecht said. "I figured I would stay in there until 10 guys came down. But I kept staying in there."
The 24-year-old wasn't without mistakes, either, falling off his line and scrambling to make a gate, but he kept his poles out front and never relented.
“Coming into this, I was just hoping to put down runs that I could be proud of and do the best I could every single run," he said. "That’s why I was disappointed with the downhill so much because I felt I could have skied a lot better. Today, I don’t think I left a whole lot in the tank. I gave it everything I had.”
Teammate Ted Ligety (19th; Park City, UT) said he wasn't surprised by Weibrecht's sudden star turn.
"He's been so fast for so long before," Ligety said. "His technique is rock solid. It's actually been more of a surprise that he hasn't been better earlier. I feel like today just shows what he is capable of, and maybe that will spark him to do better on the World Cup day to day."
Phil and Steve Mahre were the last two U.S. men to medal in the same Alpine event when the twins took gold and silver, respectively, in 1984. The U.S. Alpine Team's six medals are the most it has ever won in a single Games.
"That's incredible that we came out firing so hard, especially in a year, particularly on the men's side, where we haven't had a whole lot of podiums or wins," Weibrecht said.
Ligety thinks the course setting favored the United States, especially after a tough practice section the day before.
"You see a course like this, a hill like this, and you know that all of us have a really good chance because we are all good turners and know how to lay it down or race day," he said. "It was pretty cool to see how Weibrecht, especially, and Bode laid it down. I felt like I was just as fast; I just made those mistakes today. It was cool to see those guys both make the podium.”
The U.S. men will challenge again in the super combined Sunday, with the downhill run beginning at 9:30 a.m. PT.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Whistler Creekside, BC – Feb. 19
Men's Super G
Gold – Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 1:30.34
Silver – Bode Miller, Franconia, NH, 1:30.62
Bronze – Andrew Weibrecht, Lake Placid, NY, 1:30.65
4. Werner Heel, Italy, 1:30.67
5. Erik Guay, Canada, 1:30.68
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19. Ted Ligety, Park City, UT, 1:31.70
22. Marco Sullivan, Squaw Valley, CA, 1:32.09
Mancuso grabs second silver medal as Vonn hooks gate in Olympic super combined slalom
February 18, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE – Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) charted a courageous line through Thursday afternoon's slalom run to earn her second silver in two events and tie Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) for the most Olympic medals ever by a U.S. skier at three.
"When I realized that I got another medal, it's that moment that you wait for as an athlete," Mancuso said. "It's the moment that you realize that I've been working so hard for this moment, and to know that really, anything's possible. I didn't expect that from myself, I just believed and went for it."
Germany's Maria Riesch won super combined's top honor after downhill gold medalist and first-run leader Lindsey Vonn (Vail CO) hooked her tip around a gate and crashed late in her slalom run.
Mancuso, who also won downhill silver Wednesday and giant slalom gold in Torino, now ranks tied for sixth all time among U.S. women in Winter Olympic medals - still just 25 years old. Yet her age and recent performances belie two years of struggles on the World Cup circuit because of a back injury and changes in equipment regulations that mandated bigger, heavier skis for the petite Mancuso.
"She's a big event girl, she always has been," said U.S. Women's Head Coach Jim Tracy. "Yeah, she struggled last year, but I think in some respects it was not the worst thing in the world, because it certainly refocused her on what she wanted to do and when she wanted to accomplish those things."
Third after downhill, Mancuso went hard for the slalom leg, barely maintaining control around the gates and thrilling the Whistler crowd as she snuck into first past Austria's Kathrin Zettel.
"I don't know where this slalom was hiding, but she certainly brought it out on the day that she needed to," Tracy said.
"I was nervous in the start, but I was also really excited," Mancuso said. "I knew that it was all-or-nothing, so I went out there and I gave it my all. I crossed the finish line after having a mistake and saw that I was in first. It really was just joy and amazement."
Riesch reversed her eighth-place downhill fortunes with a stylish, smooth slalom that unseated Mancuso, and Vonn fell behind her close friend at the last interval by .18 seconds before hitting a gate and losing her ski. A course worker handed it back, and she made her way down to the finish to deliver a congratulatory hug to Riesch.
"She has her gold medal from yesterday," Reisch said after winning Germany's first alpine gold since 1998. "Today, it was a bad day for her, yesterday it was a bad day for me, and that's how sports is. I think she has another good chance in the super G."
Case in point, Sweden's Anja Paerson recovered from a brutal impact off the final jump in Wednesday's downhill to take super combined bronze.
"I was just fighting hard," Vonn said. "It happens in slalom. I was hoping that it wasn't going to happen today, but I gave it my best."
Vonn said she will continue treatment for a bruised shin, although Tracy said she has the mental strength to push through it and perform well in the remaining three Olympic races.
"I think the pain, for these events, she can put it out of her mind," Tracy said. "It'll bother her after the event's over, but I think she's so focused that the pain probably isn't there too much."
Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN) was the next highest U.S. finisher in 17th, while Leanne Smith (Conway, NH) finished 21st after tearing her ACL in Cortina just over a year ago.
"We only got one training run, which was sort of a half training run, and I managed to miss three gates," Richardson said after the downhill. "It was my first time ever on that course, so it ran differently than I thought so going into this race. I knew that I needed to take some risks, but at the same time, I really wanted to make all the gates."
Next up for the U.S. women: a day of rest, then the super G on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.
"Confidence breeds confidence," Tracy said. "We've got two of them right now that have a lot of confidence going."
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Whistler Creekside – Feb. 18
Women's Super Combined
Gold – Maria Riesch, Germany, 2:09.14
Silver – Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 2:10.08
Bronze – Anja Paerson, Sweden, 2:10.19
4. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 2:10.50
5. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 2:10.53
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17. Kaylin Richardson, Edina, MN, 2:13.40
21. Leanne Smith, Conway, NH, 2:13.97
DNF 2 – Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO
Photo by Jack Affleck/Vail Resorts
Vonn, Mancuso go 1-2 in Olympic downhill
February 17, 2010 —
WHISTLER, British Columbia - In one of the greatest performances in U.S. ski racing history, Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) became the first American woman to win downhill gold, while Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) took silver Wednesday for the first 1-2 American finish since 1984.
"It's incredible, one of the most emotional moments in my life," a tearful Vonn said after flooring it from 16th start position and ignoring lingering pain in her injured shin. "I knew what I had to do. I knew what type of run I needed to take. I needed to attack, and I did that, I made it down. It's awesome. It's all I ever wanted."
Vonn's run wasn't perfect – "a little bit ragged," she called it – but it was more than fast enough in hard, bumpy conditions that gave many in the field difficulties.
"It was definitely a challenge just to make it down for me, but I was focused and determined and just tried not to think about it," Vonn said of the course's effect on her bruised shin. "The last jump definitely made me think about it more – it was really painful – but that's all over now. I finished, I won, and I'm happy."
More than a half second slower than Vonn, Mancuso's trailblazing time was still .9 seconds faster than Austrian bronze medalist Elisabeth Goergl. The 25-year-old who has battled injuries the past two seasons adds silver to her giant slalom gold from Torino.
"I really like the tougher courses," Mancuso said. "There wasn't a lot of tucking going on up there, and it was pretty high speed. I like it when you don't get in your tuck, and I like it when it follows the natural terrain. There were a lot of jumps and good stuff going on. It was a really, really good race."
Mancuso and Vonn already had a history on Franz's Olympic downhill. The pair were 1-2 (Vonn first) in Monday's first official training session, and Vonn clinched her first of two consecutive World Cup downhill titles two years ago on the same day Mancuso won her last major international podium with a World Cup third.
That familiarity showed when Mancuso launched her small frame into huge early airs and kept a tight line through the technical sections for a gaping lead.
Vonn, in her first race since Jan. 31, recovered well from a few minor mistakes and was the only skier to lead Mancuso's splits besides Sweden's Anja Paerson – who suffered an ugly crash late in the race.
"To come into the finish area and see my name and Julia's up there was amazing," Vonn said after falling to the ground and putting her fists in the air. "It's a great day for American sports and for alpine skiing."
It is the second time two U.S. women have ever medaled in the same Olympic ski racing event – Debbie Armstrong beat out teammate Christin Cooper for giant slalom gold in Sarajevo – and Vonn's is the ninth total U.S. women's gold medal. In the same Games, Phil and Steve Mahre went gold-silver in slalom.
"It's pretty incredible," Mancuso said. "Especially to be here, in Whistler, in North America, to have Lindsey first and me second. I'm not one to really think about statistics, but I just think that it's awesome, especially in America. We just love the Olympics and it's living our dreams."
Coming in as a heavy medal favorite and dubbed by some America's "golden girl," Vonn can breath a huge sigh of relief and enjoy the rest of her Olympic experience.
"The pressure for me is gone," she said. "I got exactly what I came here to get. I have a lot of weight off my shoulders now. I can ski confidently, I know I can do it even with the shin injury. I've already won a gold medal, so I don't have to think about that, I just have to think about skiing well."
Vonn said she hopes she can be the inspiration that two-time Olympic medalist Picabo Street was to her when she met her idol at a Minnesota ski shop as a nine-year-old.
"Meeting Picabo when I was nine years old was one of the reasons why I wanted to be an Olympian," she said. "It's definitely been a long journey since that ski shop in Minnesota, but she really inspired me, and that's what I want to do and what I hope to do with this next generation of skiers."
Rounding out the incredible day for the U.S. Team was Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA), whose brave run was good for 11th less than a week after a hard training crash saw her airlifted from the course.
20-year-old Alice McKennis veered off course on Wednesday but managed to traverse the hill and narrowly make the next gate for an official finish of 36th.
Vonn's downhill glory will air in primetime on NBC tonight, with Vonn and Mancuso poised to contend in Thursday's super combined along with fellow U.S. starters Leanne Smith (Conway, NH) and Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN). The downhill begins at 9:30 a.m. PT, with slalom to follow at 12:30 p.m.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Whistler Creekside, BC – Feb. 17
Women's Downhill
Gold – Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:44.19
Silver – Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 1:44.75
Bronze – Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 1:45.65
4. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 1:45.68
5. Fabienne Suter, Switzerland, 1:46.17
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11. Stacey Cook, Mammoth Mountain, CA, 1:46.98
36. Alice McKennis, Glenwood Springs, CO, 2:00.68
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