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Headline RSS FeedVonn ready to roll in Olympic downhill race today at Whistler
February 17, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, BC – When American Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) breaks the starting wand toiday n the Olympic downhill, it will be her first race since clinching the World Cup super G title with a win on Jan. 31. Joining her in the start are teammates Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA), Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) and Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, CO).
"Lindsey is a tough competitor and there isn't going to be anything holding her back for sure," said women's Head Coach Jim Tracy. "We had a great video session last night and there will be places that she needs to improve on for sure. It's going to be tough tomorrow. There's going to be four or five girls that can get it there. Tomorrow it's going to take high focus and great execution."
Vonn, who said Monday's downhill training further aggravated her shin injury, received another cushion from the weather when Tuesday's training was canceled due to heavy snow. However, she had already planned to opt out of the session in favor of another day's rest and therapy.
"I was really actually happy that we got another day off today," said Vonn, the reigning World Champion in downhill and a two-time World Cup downhill title holder. "Yesterday in the first downhill training run, my shin was definitely hurting quite a bit, so I'm really happy that I got a chance to rest it. At the same time, yesterday was definitely really positive. I was able to ski the way I wanted to – it was really painful - but I made it down and that was a really positive step.
"I'm really excited about the race tomorrow, it's been a lot of hurry up and wait with all these cancelations," said Vonn, who spent Tuesday doing therapy and hanging out with family. "But I'm definitely antsy to get racing. I'm a fighter and I just want to get out there and start competing."
Also looking forward to getting back in the gate is Cook, who was airlifted to the Whistler Polyclinic after a crash in the opening women's training run on Feb. 11. Following successful therapy and a completed training run Monday, she's ready to take revenge on Franz's Olympic downhill.
"She took a couple of days off, she was pretty sore, but now she's feeling a lot better," said Tracy of Cook. "She had an OK training run yesterday and is a bit nervous for sure, but once she got that one (the training run) under her belt, she felt pretty confident that she can have a good race on Wednesday."
"It's definitely has not been your standard Olympics," said Cook. "I went down before Opening Ceremonies even started and then being in rehab all day everyday is tough. The important thing is that my body is fine and that I did get out skiing again today and I'm feeling a lot better on my skis today that I did yesterday. I'll be ready to race and ready to give it my all and that's what I came here for."
Mancuso, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in giant slalom, had secured a downhill start through her World Cup results and rolls into the medal race with steam from finishing second in Monday's shortened downhill training run. For 20-year-old McKennis, who made the Olympic Team in only her first year on the World Cup tour, tomorrow's start, is worth all the hard work.
"I trained really hard in the prep period and it was really great to train with all of the World Cup Team of Lindsey, Stacey and Julia," said McKennis, on Alice McKennis Day in Aspen. "It was really great to have that pace. Those girls pushed me a lot to try and step up my skiing. Coming into the World Cup season I was just hoping to score World Cup points and to do as well as I've been doing is pretty surprising, but really exciting at the same time."
The women's race starts at 11 a.m. PT and will be carried in NBC's primetime show Wednesday evening.
"I think we all feel pretty good about the chances, but this is going to show who has weathered the nerves, the delays and the mental aspect of our sport. It's been tough and everyone is going to have to have their A-game tomorrow," said Tracy.
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Miller stomps Whistler Creekside course, grabs bronze in Olympic downhill
February 15, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, BC – Shortly before he sped to the first U.S. Olympic downhill medal in 16 years, Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) already knew Monday was a special day. The 2010 bronze medalist had found the Olympic experience he'd been seeking atop the Dave Murray course at Whistler Creekside.
"Everyone was a little bit shocked at how it looked this morning," said Miller, who also owns two silvers from Salt Lake City and now has more medals than any U.S. alpine skier in history. "They injected the first few turns, they injected down the steep pitch and into the Toilet Bowl … there were a lot of changes, and maybe that helped build a little of the anxiety and the excitement, and then everyone starts to get it.
"It was clear that this was not a World Cup, everyone was feeling something different. It was cool for me. It was sort of what I had been looking for. That was the feeling I've been searching for, and I let it build up. I was real nervous before I went, but excited nervous, not anxiety nervous. I felt great."
Miller raced down from eighth position, fighting flat light through the middle part of the course and hitting a couple of bumps but torched the early times for the top spot through 16 racers. The light was better when Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal nicked Miller by .2 seconds for first, and Swiss Didier Defago skied to the gold medal two spots later in a time of 1:54.31 – just .9 seconds faster than Miller.
"I think that's great skiing, you can't take anything away from (Svindal)," Miller said. "But that's the way skiing is, sometimes you get a little bit of bad luck and that makes the difference. It's certainly not a numbers (thing), there's not a whole lot of difference between us."
Tommy Moe was the last American skier to medal when he won downhill gold and super G silver in Lillehammer. A humble Miller, the 2005 downhill World Champion, wasn't too distraught at missing out on a higher podium spot.
"It is what it is," he said. "I could have been fourth today easily. There's guys who have been better than me in some training runs here and who made mistakes or didn't have great luck today. So I was psyched the way I skied."
Miller was fifth in Sestriere, Italy, in 2006, his only other Olympic downhill appearance, and his medals in Salt Lake City came in giant slalom and combined. He rejoined the U.S. Ski Team to prepare for these Olympics after skiing two seasons on his own.
"To win a medal for the U.S. in the first event we had a chance to, it's great," Miller said. "And for my team, it's been a transition for me back onto the team, and I feel like everyone has worked really hard. I think that part is important. I think it was more a medal for everybody else than me particularly, but I'll take it."
Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) was 20th, followed by teammate Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) in 21st. The event was delayed by two days of weather-related delays, but cooler temperatures hardened the course overnight and fog cleared up.
"The course was awesome," Nyman said. "They did an amazing job getting it off. Good thing the cold temps came, I thought it was a real downhill.
"I'm happy, happy with my run and how I did. I really didn't ski that well in training runs. My body feels pretty good, and I gave it my best shot."
Weibrecht, after posting 10th in both training runs, was less content. He'll have the opportunity for redemption in both super combined and super G.
"I hoped to have a better run," Weibrecht said. "I didn't feel as though I was on it from the start. I was pretty jittery and nervous. I think that I have the ability of being there, but I didn't ski my best, and the lighting conditions were pretty tough."
Marco Sullivan was just .7 seconds back at the second interval, but fell off the pace and crashed off the jump at the bottom.
"I skied well at the top. It just got away from me," Sullivan said. "It's a little weird, there's just some weird bumps in weird places, but I thought I skied well."
The U.S. men will compete in the super combined Tuesday, beginning with the downhill at 10 a.m. PT and concluding with the 1:30 slalom. American starters are Miller, Weibrecht, Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA) and reigning Olympic combined medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, UT).
"I feel strong," Miller said. "As I’ve said it before, coming into here, I’m fit, I’m still getting stronger, I feel motivated. And like I said, you can always count on me making mistakes and pushing hard. But I’ve raced a lot of races since the last time I was in these big races and was really excited and fired up.
"I think if I let myself get emotionally wound up like that, there’s nobody who wants it more, there’s nobody who pushes harder. It’s just a matter of managing those mistakes that are inevitably going to happen."
Nyman said Miller is in a good place these Olympics.
"He wants it, it's cool, and it's nice to have him around on the team. It's pretty fun just having him, he's a jokester."
The team made use of the weather delays in training, bonding together with some powder skiing high up at Whistler.
"It was fun, just kept making laps and having fun with it," Nyman said. "We came into the Games expecting to have weather, might as well take advantage of it."
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Whistler Creekside, BC – Feb. 15
Men's Downhill
Gold – Didier Defago, Switzerland, 1:54.31
Silver – Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 1:54.38
Bronze – Bode Miller, Franconia, NH, 1:54.40
4. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 1:54.52
5. Erik Guay, Canada, 1:54.64
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20. Steven Nyman, Sundance, UT, 1:55.71
21. Andrew Weibrecht, Lake Placid, NY, 1:55.74
60. Marco Sullivan, Squaw Valley, CA, 2:07.76
Vonn first in downhill training run
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE (Feb. 15) – The U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team bore its teeth in a speedy return to action today, with Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) going 1-2 in the first session of downhill training and four Americans landing among the top 20 in the afternoon session Monday.
Vonn, considered the favorite Wednesday's downhill, continued to test her bruised shin after reporting progress in training Sunday.
"It's tough," she said. "I honestly was expecting it to be a little bit better than it was. Yesterday I trained slalom and it felt OK. But the course here is pretty bumpy – I was pretty shocked. It was like jarring – it was a fight to make it down."
"I was just barely in my tuck any part of the course. I think this is the worst course for my shin. I just have to fight through it, do some therapy now, and hopefully Mother Nature will give me another day off tomorrow. I just have to be able to grit my teeth and fight through it on Wednesday and hopefully still come out on top."
The skiers finished just above the Hot Air finish jump in the morning session and skied the bottom section from the combined slalom start in the afternoon, when Vonn was 20th in the second leg.
Vonn may refrain from training Tuesday, weather or not. She said she was taken aback that her first run time was so fast.
"I was honestly surprised," Vonn said. "I almost went out of the course a couple times. It wasn't bad skiing, it was just fighting to make it down skiing. It's not a feel-good course, it's not a fun course, it's a stick-your-nose-in-it-and-make-it-down course. If you're skiing aggressive and not sliding, you'll be fast."
Mancuso added a tie for fifth in the second session as the 2006 giant slalom gold medalist put the speed field on notice.
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Vail's Vonn, other U.S. Ski Team women ready to rock at weather-stalled Olympic venue
February 14, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, British Columbia – With four consecutive days of downhill training scrapped due to weather, the U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team, including World Champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and 2006 gold medalist Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) are ready to get back to official training Monday. If all goes well, and Mother Nature cooperates, the start of medal competition will follow with downhill on Wednesday.
Organizers are calling for a split training session around the men's downhill medal event. The first half kicks off at 10 a.m. with athletes skiing full steam from the top of the course to just above the Hot Air finish jump. At approximately 1 p.m., and following the men's flower ceremonies, the women will return to Franz's run and ski the bottom section, starting from the combined slalom start in order to get enough speed for a realistic flight off Hot Air into the finish.
If completed as planned, it will serve as an official training run and allow medal competition to begin Wednesday with downhill.
"Our girls are doing great. We've been training slalom and some super G, powder skiing, sharing our meals together - it's just an awesome atmosphere to be around," said women's Head Coach Jim Tracy. "They're all in a good mindset and looking forward to racing."
Among those training Sunday was Vonn, who put her bruised right shin to the test for the first time since Feb. 2.
"It didn't feel perfect," said Vonn, a three-time Olympian. "I'm still in quite a bit of pain while skiing, but the time off snow has been incredibly beneficial for me. I needed time to heal and Mother Nature helped me out with that. But now that I've gone out and taken a few runs, I know I can do it. I'm ready to get Olympic competition started and I know my teammates are ready to go too."
In addition to Vonn and Mancuso, who took full advantage of the snow day with some powder skiing, Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) returns to action following a crash Thursday before the session was canceled due to poor visibility. Cook was airlifted from the hill to the Whistler Polyclinic, yet escaped with only bruising.
Following her crash last Thursday, Cook said, ""It's not the ideal way to start the Olympics, but I've just got to keep fighting. I hear I'm lucky, so I've just got to keep that luck going. I'm going to be ready. I'll be back out there." And she will, along with Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, CO), Leanne Smith (Conway, NH), Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT) and Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN).
Following the training run, coaches will decide who will join Vonn and Mancuso on the start list for the downhill medal event.
But without the incredible effort of legions of volunteers, Tracy says, training would not be possible.
"We had at least 20 centimeters of snow on the top last night and they had winch cats working the top down to Ladner's Roll," said Tracy. "Below that, the volunteers are slipped everything wall to wall smoothing everything out. It's supposed to get down to the mid 20's tonight and if that happens everything should freeze up nicely. They are doing the best possible job with the cards they've been dealt and my hat goes off to them."
Course workers undaunted by weather worries at Whistler
February 13, 2010 —
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, BC - The legions of volunteers, course workers and members of the Vancouver organizing committee remain undaunted by weather challenges as day one of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games winds to a close. For alpine skiing, mild temperatures and rain have forced a schedule shift in order to ensure the best possible course conditions for racing.
"Everybody's been fantastic," said U.S. Men's Head Coach Sasha Rearick. "They've got a huge crew of unbelievable volunteers working 24 hours a day.
"They've got some challenges because the top of the hill has been receiving snow, the middle has been a mixture of snow and rain, and the bottom has been pouring rain. Three different approaches they need to take on the hill, and they've been applying that very well."
The new schedule calls for women's downhill training at 11 a.m. PT on Valentines Day with medal competition opening Monday with the men's downhill at 10:30 a.m.
The women's downhill medal event remains as originally scheduled on Wednesday at 11 a.m., while the women's super combined medal event slated to open women's competition on Feb. 14 will move to Thursday at 9:30 a.m. (second run at 12:30 p.m.). The men's super combined medal event also keeps its original slot on Tuesday at 10 a.m. (second run at 1:30 p.m.).
Rearick said men's downhill starters Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA) and Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) enjoyed a day of powder skiing up high at Whistler, while Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) had a productive session testing his skis. Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) will also start for the U.S. in that race Monday.
Weather is expected to improve, with colder temperatures moving in early in the week. Sullivan said he's not too concerned about what particular conditions they face on race day.
"Whether it's a snowy day or a windy day or whatever, if it's the same for everyone, that would be the best," he said.
Women's downhill favorite Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) couldn't have asked for a better stroke of luck while recovering from a shin injury. All three women's downhill training sessions for the super combined were canceled because of weather, giving the two-time World Cup overall champion an unexpected three additional days to heal.
Vonn and young gun Leanne Smith (Conway, NH) have secured start spots for super combined based on World Cup results and the U.S. will start two additional athletes. Vonn and Mancuso are secure in the downhill plus an additional two other U.S. women
The continuation of the Olympic spirit in the face of the rain, according to Rearick, isn't restricted to just athletes.
"Every single one of them, whether they're on the course, or at the gates, or at the race top, they're working with a smile, enjoying the process of putting the best Games on possible," said Rearick. "They've definitely had some adversity with the weather here. Right now, we just need to let the crew continue to do what they're doing, then let it get smooth and then let mother nature do its work."
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