WHISTLER, British Columbia — Lindsey Vonn plans to race in today’s women’s slalom wearing a hard-plastic brace to protect her broken right pinkie.
Thomas Vonn, who serves as his wife’s adviser and coach, said she tested the injured finger in a series of training runs Thursday. She will wear a mitten over the brace instead of a racing glove.
Whether Lindsey Vonn will tape her ski pole to her hand hasn’t been decided.
Vonn injured her finger in a crash during the first run of the giant slalom Wednesday. She also tweaked her bruised shin and back in the spill. Her husband said she’s “a ball of hurt right now,” but the pain was “manageable.”
Vonn already has two medals at these games — a gold in downhill and a bronze in super-G.
Police detain U.S. bobsledder
WHISTLER, British Columbia — American bobsledder Bill Schuffenhauer was detained, then released, by Canadian police, although it was not clear why, the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday.
Schuffenhauer, 36, is a pushman for one of the three U.S. men’s bobsled teams. A team coach said he expects Schuffenhauer to compete in the four-man competition, which begins today.
Canadian police declined comment, citing privacy laws.
“We understand that late last evening Bill Schuffenhauer, a member of the U.S. Bobsled team, was detained and released by authorities in Whistler,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said in a statement. “At this point we are awaiting further details.”
Rogge: Safety before speed
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — IOC president Jacques Rogge said Thursday he has urged Russian organizers to build the sliding track for the 2014 Winter Olympics “absolutely for safety first.”
Rogge said he wrote to organizers of the Sochi Games to make sure there is no repeat of the crash that killed a Georgian luger at the Vancouver Games.
“The IOC has been very clear in saying to the Russians: Please deliver us a track that will not be hazardous,” Rogge said.
Construction of the Sochi track starts this year. Organizers say it is designed to be 6 to 9 mph slower than the track in Whistler, where Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a training run hours before the Games opened.
Medals a popular attraction
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — First the glove. No one gets near them without the glove.
Only with one hand properly sheathed in white cotton are visitors allowed to hold the gold, silver and bronze Olympic and Paralympic medals on display at the Canadian mint in downtown Vancouver.
They have proved to be one of the most popular attractions of the Winter Games, with as many as 7,000 medalheads lining up each day to see the hardware. Waits can be as long as seven hours.
“We’ll stand as long as it takes,” said Christopher Ridge of Vancouver, B.C., who was waiting with his two sons, 7 and 9. “It’s just so exciting to be able to touch a piece of the Olympics. They’ll remember this forever.”
Inside the mint, each person is given a white glove — no prints allowed on the medals. They are attached to ribbons, but the privilege of slipping a medal around your neck is reserved for Olympians.
This year’s medals are among the heaviest in the history of the Winter Games, tipping the scales at as much as 1¼ pounds — about the weight of a 20-ounce bottle of soda.
Associated Press
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