Eight medals is more than enough

WHISLTER, B.C. — The final day of ski racing didn’t go so well for the U.S. ski team.

In fact, it stank. Ted Ligety and Bode Miller, the best hopes for another American medal or two, failed to finish their first runs in a men’s slalom that saw 43 racers out of a field of 102 not finish run No. 1. Jimmy Cochran, the No. 3 skier for the U.S. fell on his first run, but did finish after hiking back to the gate he missed. His reward for the extra effort was another fall in run two, which he did not finish.

Only Nolan Kasper managed to finish for the U.S. Saturday, and he finished 24th. Hardly the storybook ending for the Americans, but sloppy slalom or not, these games were an unqualified success for U.S. ski racing.

Prior to the 2010 Games, the most medals ever compiled by the U.S. in Alpine skiing was five, which happened in 1984, before a number of the current U.S. ski team members were born.

And after winning a disappointing two medals in Turin four years ago, most of the U.S. hopes rode on the shoulders of Sports Illustrated cover girl Lindsey Vonn, and not much was expected of the rest of the Americans. But Miller, previously known to many casual Olympic fans as the flop of the 2006 games, won a somewhat surprising bronze on the first day of Alpine racing. Two days later, Vonn won gold, as expected, in the downhill. Not at all expected, however, was the silver medal that went to Julia Mancuso, who hadn’t been on a podium in over two years.

With that, the red, white and blue were skiing like the United States of Austria. After the first six races, U.S. men and women had eight medals, including three by Miller, who didn’t train in the offseason while pondering retirement. Vonn and Mancuso each had two medals. Andrew Weibrecht, who came into the Games having never finished better than 10th in a World Cup race, won a surprising bronze to share the super-G podium with Miller.

But even though the eight-medal haul was impressive and unprecedented, we really shouldn’t be that surprised.

Vonn has dominated women’s ski racing for the past two years, and is about as close to being a sure thing as there is in a sport that is affected by so many variables that are out of the racers control. Miller, while controversial, is the best male ski racer this country has ever produced. And despite his Turin belly-flop, he came into the games with way too much talent to not be a threat in multiple events.

Add in other talented skiers such as Mancuso and Ligety, who both medaled in Turin, and a big medal grab, while not expected, shouldn’t be entirely shocking.

But don’t take my word on this. Take it from somebody who knows this sport better than you do. And just trust me on this, he does.

France’s Patrick Lang, whose father Serge came up with the idea of a World Cup ski circuit, has been covering World Cup racing in Europe since 1968.

“On one side, it can be a surprise to people who don’t follow the sport because the big teams like the Swiss and Austrians and the Italians have dominated the sport,” Lang said. “But on the other hand, knowing the skiers themselves, we know that the Americans would be charging, just going for it. That’s their tradition. We know that they are there to have fun and kick asses, that’s part of their tradition, and we are not at all surprised to see them achieve these results… . The Americans are basically doing what they can do, so it doesn’t surprise me. We Europeans are not surprised.”

Lang went on to list a number of Americans who have stepped up to perform on the word’s biggest stage. And he’s right, Olympic ski racing history is littered with American overachievers who have won medals by, as they say in the sport, givin’ ’er.

Bill Johnson? Debbie Armstrong? Tommy Moe? All gold medalists who were anything but household names before uncorking the runs of their lives in the Olympics.

And just as they succeeded by charging, the Americans also had their share of failures because of that same approach. Miller and Ligety both failed to finish Saturday because they were fighting for every possible hundredth of a second. Miller went out early before ever finding his rhythm, while Ligety straddled a gate charging in an attempt to make up for an earlier error.

Sometimes the bull wins.

“It looks great when you’re popping medals left and right like we were in the beginning, and you think we’re just that good, that we’re just kicking ass,” Miller said. “But the fact is, we’re taking enormous risks. Everyone, even Lindsey. She came in here as a monster favorite. But you can’t put it down and think you’re going to win medals here. It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t get easier as you win more medals. You still bring the same huge risks, the same intensity to every race.’’

But as a whole, the risk taking paid off in the form of eight medals, and a number of other better-than-expected results such as the 10th-place finish of Spokane’s Will Brandenburg in the super combined.

Now if you’re looking for the real surprise in Alpine skiing, take a look at the Austrian men’s team. The women won four medals, same as the U.S. women, but the men’s Alpine team, an institution that has produced more Olympic medals than any other country, failed to win a single medal.

The last time that happened? Try 1936, the first year Alpine skiing was in the Olympics. There was only one event that year, a combined race, and, oh by the way, the Austrian and Swiss skiers boycotted those games because ski instructors were not allowed to compete.

You want more surprises? Miller actually — gasp — admitted to enjoying the Olympics, an event he has basically deemed evil in the past. He even said he fed off the unique energy and enthusiasm of the Olympics. Miller, who spent part of last decade skiing independently, talked about the positive team environment that helped him here. The 32-year-old even left the door open to a return to the World Cup circuit next season.

“To come into the Games and perform the way I did, and to feel the kind of enjoyment from my skiing and from expressing myself on my skis the way I did is just phenomenal,” he said. “It’s a matter of whether I can translate that into World Cup… . A lot of why I skied the way I did and feelings I had were based on the whole circumstances surrounding the Olympics. All the energy, all the enthusiasm.”

Now that, not eight medals, is surprising.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Olympics coverage, go to heraldnet.com/olympics