Lindsey Vonn grabs gold in downhill

Source: Akron Beacon Journal - Associated Press

WHISTLER, British Columbia: If this is how Lindsey Vonn skis with a bruised shin, then the rest of the field has no chance.

Vonn showed no signs of discomfort when she won the Olympic downhill by more than half a second Wednesday, with childhood rival and American teammate Julia Mancuso taking a surprise silver medal.

''This is everything I've wanted and hoped for,'' Vonn said, her voice choked with emotion. ''I gave up everything for this.''

Vonn hurt her right shin Feb. 2 during pre-Olympic training in Austria and had hardly skied over the past two weeks. Still, as the two-time defending overall World Cup champion and the winner of five of the six downhills this season, she was an overwhelming favorite.



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Sports Illustrated had called Vonn the "best American woman skier, ever". In the replay, NBC showed us how she did it. On the straightest parts of the course, she got into a tuck and took off like a rocket.

The course was brutal. The weather had left a choppy, crusty surface that caused three women to crash. One of the women struck a pylon and it ripped off her goggles as she slid by.

Maria Riesch of Germany skied very conservatively and finished eighth. Two seconds behind in a 105 second race. Her instinct for survival protected her.

I live vicariously through these moments. Tonight I shall put on my skinny skis and poke around among the hemlocks and the limestone outcrops in my local metropark. It's beautiful, man!

The downhill IS the Winter Olympics.


...and Mancuso got the silver - amazing.

NBC recounted that she placed in previous Olympics and Cup-races while dealing with pain. What a champ!

I think it was 6 women that fell. Thankfully none were hurt badly. Vonn showed a lot of toughness with her bruised leg.

i watched the NBC coverage - they showed 8 runs total, i think:

3 medalists
1 american who didn't place
3 crashes
1 maria reisch

out of 40 minutes dedicated to the competition, they had 25 mintues of commercials.

then they intruded on the vonn's intimacy.

where did you see all 45 runs?

I hear they've done a much better job than NBC the last few Olympics.

We missed it!! Waaa!

Now I'm confused cuz the NBC vid library says it's microsoft or something (If I remember correctly....tried to see something else the other day and saw that.)

So, we have a Mac. Actually I saw the microsoft player thing, thought, "Oh great, I'm SOL. Dammit", got pissed off and clicked it off in disgust.

Is it really inaccessible to us Mac folk?

She learned to ski on the "mountains" of Minnesota. We're really proud of her.

Lindsey's home slope

I feel the same way about the VT Olympians from Hannah Kearney (moguls gold) to Hannah Teter(half pipe gold 2006) to Kelley Clark (halfpipe gold 2002).

Very rough, icy and fast course. One of the best downhill finals, men or women, Ive ever seen.