Olympic Times – Sports Daily

Vancouver Olympic Games 2010

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo slipped off to enjoy a romantic evening together on Valentine’s Day after setting pulses racing with a near flawless display in the Olympic figure skating pairs short program Sunday.
The Chinese husband-and-wife team, who have come out of retirement to make a fourth attempt at winning the top prize, held almost 14,000 spectators transfixed as they effortlessly glided around the ice to earn a record 76.66 points.
German world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy put in an emotionally-charged performance to “Send in the Clowns” but their out-of-sync spins probably cost them the lead as they trailed the Chinese by just 0.7 of a point.
The crowd, however, gave the judges the thumbs down when they muttered their disapproval at the scores given to the Germans.
Russians Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov finished third with 74.16.
“I feel very happy today because we put in a very good performance, it’s probably a gift for Valentine’s Day,” a grinning Zhao told reporters.
“Today is just the short program, tomorrow will be more important and hopefully tomorrow we will put in as good a performance as today.”

HAUNTING MELODY
Gliding around to the haunting melody of “Who Wants to Live Forever” by rock group Queen, they nailed their eight elements to leave their rivals sweating it out backstage in nervous anticipation.
Shen and Zhao were the first of 20 duos to skate and such was the standard they set, for the next two hours it almost seemed as if the arena had been taken over by a bunch of kindergarten skaters, with scores hovering around the 50 point mark.
It was not until Kavaguti and Smirnov stepped on to the ice that the competition once again started to resemble an Olympic event.
Savchenko and Szolkowy showed up last dressed as clowns, complete with oversized collars and black tear drops painted on their right cheeks. But it was no laughing matter when they realized their crowd-pleasing routine had failed to overtake the Chinese.
“We did everything we could,” shrugged Savchenko.
Szolkowy added: “It’s always a good sign if the audience are booing. It says the audience maybe loves your performance.”
Shen and Zhao, twice Olympic bronze medalists, are the sentimental favorites to break Russian domination in the pairs event which stretches back to the 1964 Innsbruck Games.
Although they gained the psychological edge going into Monday’s free skate, the gold medal race remained wide open as only 5.38 points separated the top five — and one fall or spill could cost any of the leaders dear.
China’s Pang Qing and Tong Jian and Turin silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao completed the top five.

source: www.reuters.com

Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s first gold medal on home soil, lifting the host nation’s spirits on the third day of the Winter Olympics that have been marred by rain, race cancellations and the death of an athlete.
“The party is just starting for Canada,” said Bilodeau, 22, who ended the country’s home medal drought with a first- place finish in the moguls event last night at Cypress resort near Vancouver. “It’s too good to be true.”
Hundreds of people whooped and cheered near the Olympic flame along the Vancouver waterfront as word spread of Bilodeau’s victory last night. Crowds spilled onto Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, singing the national anthem and waving the nation’s red and white flag.
“We’ve always been winners” in the Olympics, said Ken Ng, 50, of Richmond, British Columbia as he joined the celebrations near the flame. “Now we’re winners at home. That makes all the difference.”
Bilodeau said this won’t be the last gold medal for Canadians in the 21st Winter Olympics, with 14 more days of competition. Canada failed to win a gold medal at the Winter Games in Calgary in 1988 and the Montreal Summer Games in 1976, making it the only host nation to never win gold. Bilodeau ended that on the second day of medal competition.
“There are many more golds to come,” Bilodeau said. “This team is strong.”
Bilodeau’s moguls win last night gives the host nation reason to celebrate during an Olympics in which as much has gone wrong as right.

Luger Death

Even before the Games began, Canada’s Olympic organizers were forced to deal with the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from Georgia who crashed during a training run in Whistler, British Columbia.
The crash, just seven hours before the opening ceremony, cast a shadow over the Games for a country that had been working seven years to showcase its third-biggest city to the world.
“This has been just about the most challenging day we could ever imagine,” Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee Chief Executive Officer John Furlong said Feb. 12. “Never in a thousand years would we have dreamed with having to deal with the things we’ve had.”
The weather also failed to cooperate, with record-high temperatures in January and steady rain and fog on the opening weekend forcing cancellations of skiing events and training runs. Organizers were forced to close the standing-room section at Cypress for the snowboard cross events today and tomorrow because of heavy rains. The closing affects about 4,000 spectators at each event. They will be given refunds.

Opening Ceremony
Even the opening ceremony had a glitch, as the fourth pillar supporting one of the Olympic torches failed to spring up from the floor of the B.C. Place stadium, leaving one of the torch bearers with nothing to light.
Bilodeau’s victory may help the host nation change course, and end questions about whether Canada will ever win a gold at home after gold-medal favorites such as freestyle skier Jennifer Heil and speedskater Charles Hamelin failed to win on the first day of competition.
“It takes a bit of the monkey off the back of the other athletes,” said Dave Cobb, co-CEO of the Vancouver Olympics committee.
The win pushes Canada to a third-place tie in the medals standings, with a gold, a silver and a bronze. The U.S. leads with six medals.
Canada spent a record C$116 million ($109 million) to prepare its skiers, skaters, sliders and the rest of its winter athletes for Vancouver.

Better Results
“They’ve been getting some great results at many of the World Cup ski events in recent years so I think some of the money they are putting into the sport is paying off,” said Kris Hutton, 40, a software product manager from West Vancouver who was watching medal ceremonies in Whistler with his wife and four children.
The investment, and the so-called home-field advantage, prompted Daniel Johnson, a Colorado College professor with a 94 percent accuracy rate for predicting Olympic medals, to forecast Canada will win the most medals in Vancouver. He says Canada will win 27 medals, one more than the U.S. and Germany.

Own the Podium
Canada set up the “Own the Podium” program in 2004 to ensure its winter athletes fared better in Vancouver. The program paid dividends at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, when Canada placed third with 24 medals, a national record.
“We have a single goal, to be No. 1,” said Roger Jackson, the CEO of Own the Podium, which is funded by the federal government and the organizing committee of the Vancouver Winter Games.
“This is inspiring,” said Canadian luger Sam Edney, commenting on Bilodeau’s gold. “It’s going to light a fire under Canadians.”

source: www.bloomberg.com

Sweden right wing Tomas Holmstrom was ruled out of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games on Sunday after suffering a left knee injury in Detroit’s National Hockey League game a day earlier against Ottawa.

Holmstrom, who has 15 goals and nine assists in 47 NHL games this season, will be replaced by Detroit Red Wings teammate Johan Franzen, Swedish coach Bengt Ake Gustafsson said.

Holmstrom missed 13 games in January because of a knee injury and returned for three games before sitting out Tuesday in St. Louis. He returned Thursday against San Jose but was injured in the first period Saturday.

The Ottawa game was only Franzen’s third game back following surgery on his left knee.

source: www.vancouver2010.com

The controversy surrounding Friday’s fatal accident on the luge track at the Winter Olympics continues. And tonight more athletes set to compete on that track are asking questions, as CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports from Vancouver.
The luge runs on a refitted track that began Saturday continued Sunday – with a higher wall at turn 16 near the finish and a lower start point for everyone, following the opening-day death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run.
But the concern continues, not just for lugers but for all the athletes scheduled to compete at the Whistler Sliding Center – the fastest track in the world. After luge comes skeleton, then bobsled.
The Whistler track is super-fast due to its grade, said Noelle Pikus-Pace, a world-champion skeleton racer.
“From curve one down to curve three, we drop so quickly so suddenly,” she said. “Any error can cause injury.”
In her sport, Pikus-Pace can reach speeds of nearly 90 mph on the track. And she knows well the dangers of sliding sports. Her leg was badly broken in 2005 when a bobsled that failed to break crashed into her in Calgary.
Her intense rehab forced her to miss the Torino games four years ago. But she’s now in Vancouver – with her two-year-old daughter Lacee – going for gold in a sport that his hardly safer.
“It’s a lot faster than when I first started [10 years ago],” Pikus-Pace said. “Not just because of the tracks but because of equipment. Technology has taken us to a whole new level.”
That means the sleds, the uniforms – anything that gives an edge. For better or worse following the Olympic motto: higher, faster, stronger.
“It’s almost like we’ve gone back to ancient Rome – where we want to be entertained by dangerous events,” said Olympic historian David Wallichensky.
There have been more crashes since Friday’s tragedy, though nothing serious. With plenty of competition left, athletes remain on edge.

source: www.cbsnews.com

Switzerland’s Simon Ammann claimed the first gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver when he won the opening men’s ski-jumping event on Saturday, while Dutch skater Sven Kramer took out the first title on ice in a record time.

The 28-year-old Ammann secured his third career Olympic victory, following two golds in 2002, as he triumphed in the normal hill competition.

Ammann led after the first round and then, as the last man to leap in the final session, produced a huge jump of 108 meters at Whistler Olympic Park.

He finished with a total of 276.5 points to push Poland’s Adam Malysz into the silver medal position.
“Life does not always go the way you want it to. This is why I want to cherish the moments, and I’ve had a lot of luck in my career and also today,” Ammann, who was in 2002 nicknamed the “Harry Potter of ski-jumping” due to his likeness to J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard, told reporters.

Malysz had been on top after a jump of 105 meters which, when boosted by judge’s marks, put him ahead of bronze medal winner Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria, who had leaped 106.5 meters.
Malysz finished on a total of 269.5 points, with Schlierenzauer on 268.

Kramer earned the 5,000 meters speed skating title with an Olympic record time of six minutes and 14.60 seconds.

The 23-year-old world champion went one better than his silver medal at Turin 2006 as he finished 2.35 seconds ahead of South Korea’s Lee Seung-Hoon.

Ivan Skobrev of Russia won the bronze medal in was third in 6:18.05, while defending champion Chad Hendrick of the United States finished way back in 11th.

The first women’s gold medal of the Games was claimed by Slovakia’s Anastazia Kuzmina, who triumphed in the biathlon 7.5 kilometer sprint event.

She became the first athlete from the East European nation to win at a Winter Olympics, with her winning time of 19 minutes and 55.6 seconds heading off Germany’s Magdalena Neuner in second place (19:57.1).

Marie Dorin of France won bronze in the event, which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, with a time of 20:06.5.

In the opening women’s ice hockey match, 2006 silver medallists Sweden defeated Switzerland 3-0 at the UBC Thunderbird Arena.

Goals in each of the first three periods from Danijela Rundqvist, Tina Enstrom and Erica Uden Johansson sealed victory in the Group A match, with hosts and defending champions Canada to play Slovakia later on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the men’s alpine skiing downhill competition at Whistler Creekside scheduled for Saturday has been postponed until Monday due to adverse weather.

Skiing’s blue riband event was supposed to open the program, but overnight snow and rain followed by mild temperatures made conditions unsuitable.

American Bode Miller, the 2005 world champion, will be seeking to win his first Olympic gold, having claimed two silvers on home soil at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Sunday’s women’s super-combined and slalom skiing events have also been postponed after the competitors were unable to complete practice runs on Saturday.

American medal hope Lindsey Vonn has entered in both disciplines, among five she will be competing in, having shrugged off recent injury problems.

source: edition.cnn.com

Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s Chef de Mission for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, said Sunday she has set the country’s athletes a target of 10 medals. ‘‘As a medal target, I aim at the number we won in Nagano,’’ Hashimoto said after arriving in Vancouver from Japan.

At the 1998 Nagano Games, Japan secured the most medals it has ever won in a Winter Olympics with 10, including five golds.

‘‘I want to do whatever I can so that the Japanese athletes will reflect back on the Vancouver Olympics as their best Olympics,’’ said the 45-year-old, a seven-time Olympian who will be the first woman ever to head the Japanese team at a Summer Games or Winter Olympics.

Hashimoto holds the Japanese record for most Olympic appearances and has taken part in the Winter Games four times, winning a speed skating bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 1992 Albertville Games.

She has also competed in three Summer Olympics as a cyclist.

Taylor Fletcher couldn’t match the best performance of his career in Nordic combined. He came close, though.
A day after finishing third in a Continental Cup event at Mount Van Hoevenberg, Fletcher rallied from 21st and finished fourth Sunday behind Tomaz Druml of Austria. The effort led another strong showing by the American team. Teammate Alexander Miller was 10th, losing a photo finish for ninth to Nicolas Martin of France, and Carl Van Loan finished 13th.
Nick Hendrickson of the United States, who was 10th on Saturday, was 33rd Sunday after a poor jump relegated him to the 40th starting position for the cross-country ski race.
“I wasn’t able to catch that lead group, but I was happy,” the 19-year-old Fletcher said. “I had a strong race. I was able to lead most of the laps in the pack I was in.”
Fletcher, of Steamboat Springs, Colo., posted the fastest time in the 10-kilometer portion of the event, finishing in 24 minutes, 5.3 seconds after starting 46 seconds behind Druml.
“It’s a great weekend for Taylor, a great weekend for everybody,” U.S. coach Dave Jarrett said. “For him, you just look at the path that he’s been on the last couple of years. This is just another step, another door opened.”
Each nation can field a five-member team for Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics, and the U.S. is hoping to add two more competitors. Double world champion Todd Lodwick, Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane already have secured positions.
“We won’t know for another month whether we have four or five slots,” Jarrett said.
Druml won for the second straight day and fourth time overall at Lake Placid and is headed for the World Cup circuit in his quest to qualify for the Vancouver Games. He was impressed by the Americans.
“The young guys are coming up, really pushing it,” Druml said. “The U.S. team is getting stronger and stronger. We have to be careful.”
Druml, who rallied from 1 minute, 40 seconds behind to beat Andreas Guenter of Germany by 0.6 seconds Saturday, had to make up only 46 seconds on leader Yoshito Watabe of Japan on Sunday. He again beat Guenter, this time by 22.2 seconds, while Fabian Riessle of Germany was third, another 2 seconds back.
“The finish was definitely easier than yesterday,” said Druml, who finished the 10k in 24:26.2.
Watabe won the 90-meter jumping portion of the event, but only barely over Guenter, who began the 10k just 2 seconds behind.
Druml continued his surge to the front and held a five-second lead starting the final lap with Fletcher in the mix as Watabe began to fade. By then, Fletcher had more than made up the 92-second lead Watabe had at the start, but Fletcher lost third to Riessle in the final strides, finishing less than a second behind.
“It was tight at the end,” Fletcher said. “He (Riessle) was able to hang on there, get me at the end.”
Willy Graves, of Lake Placid, had the best jump Sunday for the United States, tying for seventh and starting the cross-country race just 52 seconds behind Watabe before fading to 22nd.

from: sports.yahoo.com/olympics

Lindsey Vonn won her fourth straight super-G race Sunday and promised to chase more trophies on the women’s World Cup circuit after a successful stop in Bulgaria.
“There is no conservative skiing for me,” the 24-year-old American said. “I have to be really aggressive—that’s my strategy.”
After three races here, the defending overall World Cup champion widened her lead in the standings to nearly 400 points. She also moved into contention for the super-G trophy a day after clinching the downhill title, joining her idol, Picabo Street, as the only Americans to win back-to-back titles in the discipline.
On Sunday, Vonn won the super-G in 1 minute, 14.49 seconds, sweeping aside concerns caused by an injured thumb and a bruising fall in training three days ago.
Two of the tournament’s standouts, Fabienne Suter of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia, lagged by 0.58 and 0.91 seconds for second and third place.
Bulgaria’s bumpy and icy course—used for the first time on the women’s circuit—hurt Vonn’s main rivals in the overall standings.
Germany’s Maria Riesch, who tied for fifth place Sunday, is now 391 points behind Vonn’s tally of 1,556 in the overall standings. Anja Paerson of Sweden, third overall with 986 points, finished her first race in Bulgaria for 10th place in the super-G.
“I think all my disciplines are better this year,” Vonn said. “Super-G has been the best season in my life, above and beyond what I expected this year.”
The American closed within 15 points of Suter in the super-G standings.

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Japan’s men were the shock winners of the Nordic combined team title at the world championships here on Thursday.
The Japanese claimed gold after finishing fifth in the ski jump and winning the cross-country skiing 4x5km relay by the smallest of margins.
Germany finished second with the much-fancied Norwegians third.
In a tight race to the line in the relay, Japan’s team of Yusuke Minato, Taihei Kato, Akito Watabe and Norihoto Kobayashi pipped the Germans by just 0.1 seconds, while Norway finished 3.6 seconds off the pace to take bronze.
Pre-competition favourites Finland suffered the late withdrawal of World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta and finished eighth, while the United States finished outside the top ten after Bill Demong lost his bib number and was unable to take part in the ski jump.
It was Japan‘s first team world championship success since 1995, when the inspirational Kenji Ogiwara was behind his country’s ascent to the pinnacle of the sport.
The Nagano native won Olympic team titles in 1992 and 1994 and world team titles in 1993 and 1995.
An individual world champion in 1993 and 1997, Ogiwara dominated the World Cup between 1993 and 1995 before succumbing to the rise of the Finns and the Norwegians and retiring in 2002.
Since then Japan’s Nordic skiers have acquired a reputation for being accomplished ski jumpers but unreliable cross-country skiers.
“The Japanese team has been revived by young skiers who, like me when I was 12 years old, followed the exploits of Ogiwara, Masashi Abe and Takanori Kono. I dreamed about emulating them,” said Kobayashi, the highest ranked Japanese competitor in the world rankings at 22nd.
“We’ve rediscovered how to win. It’s a surprise for us as well, but we made the right choices in terms of tactics and the waxing of our equipment.”

from: AFP via google.com

A ski patrol member has been killed in an avalanche at Squaw Valley USA ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
The Squaw Valley Fire Department says 41-year-old Andrew Entin was working on avalanche controls Tuesday when he was caught in a slide and partially buried.
Fire spokesman Pete Bansen says another member of the ski patrol dug him out while emergency crews responded to the scene, but Entin later died at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno. The cause of death is under investigation.
More than 4 feet of snow have fallen at upper elevations of the region over the past 24 hours. Nearly a 100-mile stretch of U.S. Interstate 80 is closed west of Reno.

source: AP The Associated Press via google.com

Felix Neureuther of Germany won the World Cup parallel slalom here on Friday in an event staged on an artificial slope to help promote Russia’s readiness to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

France’s Jean-Baptiste Grange was second with American superstar Bode Miller taking third ahead of compatriot Ted Ligety in a competition held in the shadow of the Kremlin.

“I feel great,” Neureuther said. “It’s natural to feel great when you win.

“It was very interesting to compete on this artificial ramp. It’s completely different to a natural slope, but still a really challenging and interesting experience.”

The 24-year-old Neureuther defeated Bernard Vajdic of Slovenia in the opening round, Austria’s Mario Matt in the quarter-final and Ligety in the semis before beating FIS World Cup slalom section leader Grange in the deciding races.

Neureuther won the first leg of the final and finished even with the Frenchman in the second.

The referees decided to give the finalists the third deciding attempt but Grange missed his chance as he fell in the middle of the distance.

A special 200m artificial ski slope, with a 56m drop in height, was constructed within the campus of Moscow State University specially for the event.

The organisers however had to bring to Moscow a caravan of refrigerators with more than 3,000 cubic metres of natural snow from Siberia to provide the competitors with a top-class surface that fit strict FIS demands.

from: google.com

Semmering, Austria – Reigning World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) marked her third slalom podium of the year, taking the number three spot in Semmering Monday. Hailey Duke (Boise, ID) had a career-best finish, coming in eighth. Germany’s Maria Riesch won for her second slalom victory in a row.
Riesch, the leader after the opening run, beat out Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen by 0.21 seconds. Vonn finished in a two-run time of 1:56.69.

“Slalom has been going really well for me this season. It’s such a big difference from last year and I feel really good about it,” Vonn said. “Today, for sure, I didn’t have a great first run but I was able to come back. I fought hard.”

According to Vonn, the second run course was more her racing style and that’s where she gained her speed.

“The second run was a great course and it definitely suited me better so I tried to use that opportunity,” Vonn said. “I was able to make up some time. It wasn’t enough to get the top spot, but it’s OK, I’m really happy with third.”

For U.S. Ski Team Women’s Alpine Tech Coach Trevor Wagner, Vonn’s second runs are her strength this season.

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NOVE MESTO NA MORAVE, Czech Republic — Axel Teichmann of Germany won a 15-kilometre cross-country race Wednesday and Virpi Kuitunen of Finland won the women’s event in the fourth leg of the World Cup’s annual Tour de Ski series.

Teichmann completed the classical style race in 39 minutes 3.7 seconds. Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway was five seconds behind and Nikolay Chebotko of Kazakhstan was third, 10.5 seconds off the pace.

Devon Kershaw, a native of Sudbury, Ont., finished in 14th place. Dario Cologna of Switzerland was 15th and remains the tour’s leader with an overall time of one hour 24 minutes and 36.9 seconds. Ivan Babikov of Canmore, Alta., was 25th and George Grey of Rossland, B.C., was 49th.

Kuitunen led a Finnish double, completing the women’s 9K race in 24:45.4 to take the overall tour lead. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was second and Norway’s Marit Bjorgen third. Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., was 11th.

The tour will continue with sprint events in the Czech resort on Thursday.

The races are part of the third edition of the Tour de Ski. The tour includes seven races in nine days, and the overall time winner gets 400 World Cup points.

source: google.com

Harbin, capital city of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and host to the 2009 Winter Universiade, is considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, senior officials revealed two months before the opening of the Universiade, from Feb 18-28.
“If the hosting of the 2009 Winter Universiade can win applause from all the guests, it will enhance our confidence to bid for the Winter Olympic Games,” said Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang province. “We are considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, although the decision has to be approved by Chinese sports authorities.”

Harbin, dubbed as “ice city” due to its beautiful scenery in winter, failed to make the short list for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but won hosting rights for the 2009 Winter Universiade four years ago.
Vancouver, Canada, will host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — At this week’s World Cup ski racing in the Colorado Rockies, the cream continues to rise to the top.

And the sluggish American skiers continue to take a long time getting to the bottom.

The good news for the U.S. skiers Saturday was that they crashed less than they did in Friday’s downhill. The bad news is they failed to reach the podium for a second consecutive day on a hill where they have enjoyed a home-slope advantage in recent years.

Europeans dominated the super-G Saturday, with Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, a dramatic winner in Friday’s downhill on the same treacherous Birds of Prey course where a year ago he suffered season-ending injuries, claiming his second victory in two days.

Almost as impressive was the second-place finish of Austrian legend Hermann Maier, who, on the eve of his 36th birthday, reached the podium for the second time in a week. He won a super-G last Sunday in Lake Louise, Alberta.
Svindal said it was an honor to share the podium with Maier, whose 54 career World Cup victories are second only to Swedish gate-runner Ingemar Stenmark’s 86.

“He’s one of the biggest legends in Alpine racing,” Svindal said of Maier. “He’s definitely back now.”

Maier returned the compliment to Svindal, 25, the 2007 World Cup overall champ who moved into the overall lead with Saturday’s victory.

“He can maybe be a successor,” said Maier, who has won four overall World Cup titles but slipped to 19th and 21st in the overall standings the past two seasons. “Maybe he can step into my feets, or maybe better ones.”

Maier, while standing second in the overall standings, said winning an overall title is no longer a goal.

“My goal is just to be good in the fast disciplines (downhill and super-G),” he said. “I don’t have to be concerned about every race any more. At my age, I can be more relaxed.

“I’m very happy to ski at this level at this age. That is a great present.”

Whether he will try to ski another season past this one — and compete at the Vancouver Olympics — is unknown. “I just don’t know,” he said. “That’s too far away.”

Third place went to another veteran Austrian star, 33-year-old Michael Walchhofer.

U.S. skier Bode Miller, the defending World Cup overall champion, continued a ragged week of racing that saw him drop to ninth in the overall standings.

He showed up for the super-G Saturday morning with several cuts and scrapes on his face, the result of a face-first crash in Friday’s downhill.

He didn’t fall Saturday, but it was something of a miracle he didn’t, after getting thrown about on the upper section of the course and making an impressive recovery just to stay on his skis. He finished 14th.

“I’m a little bit sore,” Miller said. Of his race Saturday, he said, “When you make a mistake, it usually takes you out.”

The other American downhill/super-G contenders finished well back. Marco Sullivan and Steven Nyman, both considered capable of podium finishes on this hill, were 22nd and 25th, respectively.

The pleasant surprise for the U.S. Ski Team was the performance of Ted Ligety, who survived a near-disaster on a long jump and put up a solid seventh-place finish.

Ligety, 24, the 2006 Olympic combined gold medalist and reigning World Cup giant slalom champion, plans to skip a lot of speed events this season and focus on slalom and giant slalom. So, a top-10 finish in super-G is an encouraging sign for him.

Ligety should have a solid shot at winning in Sunday’s giant slalom, the last World Cup event in North America before the tour heads to Europe.

source: usatoday.com