WHISTLER, B.C. — Lindsey Vonn is hoping a day off will help her bounce back in today’s super-G and win a second gold medal.
After opening her Olympics by winning gold in the downhill, Vonn wiped out in the slalom leg of the super-combined.
While other competitors were testing the super-G course Friday, Vonn was at home baking banana bread and resting her bruised right shin.
“The day off definitely helped her shin out,” said Vonn’s husband, chief adviser and unofficial coach, Thomas, a former U.S. skier. “It’s one of those injuries that hurts a lot, but it’s not really affecting her skiing a whole lot. We’re lucky with that.”
Vonn is hoping to match her sweep of the speed events at last season’s world championships in Val d’Isere, France. She also won the last three World Cup super-Gs.
Super-combined gold medalist Maria Riesch has struggled in super-G this season — failing to crack the top 10 in her previous five races.
Anja Paerson, the Swedish standout who won the event at the 2007 worlds, also stands to be a threat, while Vonn’s American teammate Julia Mancuso is aiming for her third medal in three races.
Few expected much from Mancuso, who won silver medals in the opening two events. The Squaw Valley, Calif., skier won the giant slalom at the 2006 Turin Games but had gone two years without posting a podium finish.
“I have more of a no-holding-back attitude, because I already have my two medals, and really more will be a bonus,” Mancuso said. “I want to let everything out there.”
Mancuso finished third in the super-G portion of a super-combined in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the final World Cup stop before the games. Her best finish in an actual super-G this season was 10th in Haus im Ennstal, Austria, on Jan. 10.
Mancuso stands 20th in this season’s World Cup super-G standings. Vonn leads, Fabienne Suter of Switzerland is second and Andrea Fischbacher of Austria is third.
Elisabeth Goergl of Austria won the season’s opening super-G and took bronze behind Vonn and Mancuso in the downhill here.
Mancuso took advantage of free skiing on the race hill Friday.
“The snow is really hard still and training has been good. I have a lot of confidence,” she said. “It’s a tough course, so it will favor the skiers that are better technically.”
If the course is more like a giant slalom layout, that could favor Mancuso and hurt Vonn, who has never posted a podium finish in giant slalom.
“From what I saw it looked like Lindsey could do well on that course,” Thomas Vonn said. “It definitely is one of the more challenging hills. Lindsey’s strength is that she’s good at both technical and wide-open.”
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