American Skiers and Boarders Deliver Olympic Medals
Cypress Mountain, Olympic venue for the freestyle skiing and snowboard events (© VANOC/COVAN)
Shaun White’s gold in the men’s halfpipe and Lindsey Vonn’s gold in the women’s downhill were worth all the nervous delays caused by British Columbia’s fickle coastal weather. Add Bode Miller’s bronze medal in the men’s downhill (he was .09 seconds off the winning time) and you’ve got something to write home about. And let’s not forget American women Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark, who took silver and bronze in the women’s halfpipe.
And there are likely more medals to come from the U.S. Ski and Snowboarding Team. Watch for Ted Ligety in the giant slalom and slalom next week.
White, 23, pulled off his new trick, Double McTwist 1260, a two-flip, three-and-a-half-spin surprise that he perfected on a remote halfpipe in Colorado, built by his sponsor Red Bull. Vonn, 25, did the sort of she’s been doing all winter. She beat the fastest women in the world for the most daring and dramatic gold medal of the games, so far. Her American roommate, Julia Mancuso, who in show skied a perfect run, won silver. Mancuso was a gold medalist in giant slalom four years past.
The weather-caused delays played into Vonn’s hand, allowing a painful, injured right shin additional days to heal. Before starting down the course, Vonn was told that Mancuso was in the lead. It was now or never. And it was one of the most extraordinary descents in Olympic downhill history.
Vonn defeated Mancuso by more than a half second. But she almost lost it all, flying a good 50 yards off the final Hot Air jump and wobbling on the landing. Vonn is the first American woman to win the Oly
mpic downhill.
For White, who besides won the halfpipe competition at the 2006 Turin Olympics, the gold medal at Vancouver was all about raising the bar. White wanted to shake up the halfpipe world. He believed that tricks had hardly advanced in the four years since Turin. Winning runs looked old and worn, according to White.
On his first run at Cypress Mountain, down a 550-foot chute of ice where he would explode above its 22-foot walls, White pulled off a string of tricks that were unthinkable four years ago—backside air, a fit with a front double cork 1080, a cab-double cork 1080, a frontside stalefish 540, and a backside 900 to finish. His first run score of 46.8 out of 50 assured him of gold. But the showman showed up for a second run that served as a victory lap showcasing all his tricks, including the Double McTwist 1260 and everything but pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The assistant run scored 48.4 out of 50. American Scotty Lago won bronze.
Bode Miller’s bronze-medal stream was classic Bode, riding the thin line between winning and crashing. Bode started eight out of 64 racers. The light was flat and Bode had to feel his way into disfavor. By the time Swiss winner Didier Defago and Norwegian silver-medalist Aksel Lund Svindal came down, the sun was out and everything was winter bright.
Bode came to Whistler focused on the Olympics, unlike 2006 in Turin where he was expected to be a contender in all five Alpine disciplines but won no medals while enhancing his reputation while a party guy, aloof from the U.S. ski team. At Whistler, Bode, 32, wasn’t considered a contender. But he’s always a threat. Few racers can match Bode when he has a clean run. His Olympic run wasn’t perfect. But it was fast. Here’s a clip with Bode doing the analysis.