WHISTLER, B.C. — The most accomplished American skier in Olympic history — the girl with gold already tucked in her pocket — won another medal Thursday.
Her name: Julia Mancuso.
The day after a bus-load of drop-in history assessors returned to Vancouver’s media compound after justifiably praising Lindsey Vonn after her dramatic win in downhill, Mancuso sent out a mountain memo suggesting the story isn’t over yet.
Mancuso, who finished behind Vonn in the downhill, claimed a surprising — shocking, some might say — silver medal in the women’s super combined.
Vonn won the morning downhill and was zig-zagging through her afternoon slalom when she clipped a gate as she came into view over the hump called “Hot Air” and did not finish.
Mancuso’s second silver in two days here, added to her giant slalom gold in Turin four years ago, now ties her with Bode Miller for most Olympic alpine medals for an American.
“That’s crazy,” Mancuso said. “And cool.”
Germany’s Maria Riesch, who basically admitted she choked after finishing more than two seconds behind Vonn in the downhill, rebounded to win the combined with a two-run time of 2 minutes, 9.14 seconds.
Mancuso finished nearly a second behind, with a battered but brave Anja Paerson of Sweden claiming the bronze less than 24 hours after she violently crashed in the downhill.
“I have a lot of bruises,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to win a beauty contest today.”
The Olympic bronze was Paerson’s sixth medal, tying Croatia’s Jancia Kostelic for most among women.
Mancuso’s silver was a brazen bolt considering she has managed to complete only two of her last 10 World Cup slaloms, finishing 16th and 26th in the ones she did.
The combined is the total time of a downhill and slalom, raced on the same day. The format has been altered since Turin, when two slalom runs were required — which certainly benefitted Mancuso.
“I wasn’t too surprised that I could ski slalom,” said Mancuso, who finished third in the morning downhill. “I was surprised my slalom was fast.”
Vonn held a .33 lead over Riesch after the downhill but knew she had to charge hard because her German friend is also the world’s top-ranked slalom racer.
Vonn might have played it safer to improve her medal chances.
“I won a gold medal yesterday,” she said. “I didn’t want to shoot for something lower than that.”
Everyone expected Vonn to do well at these Olympics, but Mancuso arrived with almost no fanfare. The skiers have been rivals for years and know, obviously, they are now standing on the biggest stage.
“I’ve been struggling,” she said. “I wanted to come in and ski my best races, it wasn’t really about trying to get media attention I didn’t deserve yet.”
Mancuso pulled a stunner four years ago in Turin when she won the GS in Italy, but she didn’t get much medal bounce because her victory came in a blizzard at the end of an alpine fortnight tainted by Bode Miller.
Vonn said she was “psyched” for Mancuso.
“No one really expected her to do anything,” Vonn said. “And that really helps. … It’s definitely a lot more difficult when everyone is looking at you and expects you to do things.”
Who would have thought with three women’s events left, Mancuso has a chance to leave Whistler with a bigger medal haul than Vonn.
Based on the way she’s skied Whistler Mountain so far, Mancuso is certainly a medal contender in Saturday’s super giant slalom — and she’ll enter next Wednesday’s giant slalom as defending Olympic champion.
Four medals?
“It’s definitely possible,” Mancuso said. “Anything’s possible as you saw today.”
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