Super G Downhill

WHISTLER, British Columbia -� It wasn't another gold, but Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) earned her second Olympic medal with a gutsy bronze in Saturday's super G. Austria's Andrea Fischbacher sped down in the day's fastest time, while Slovenia's Tina Maze edged out Vonn for the silver. Vonn, who has already clinched the 2010 World Cup super G discipline title with two races remaining, raced from the 17th spot and cruised to more than a half-second advantage over the field. She lost critical tenths on the bottom section, however, and Fischbacher held onto a more aggressive line two spots later for a .74-second lead.

"When I came down to the finish and saw No. 1 next to my name, I thought 'Hopefully, this is another gold medal,'" she said. "Obviously, that wasn't the case, but I did my best, and I'm definitely very, very proud of another Olympic medal.

Vonn, who won gold in the World Championship downhill and super G a year ago, came into Vancouver with hopes for a medal and now has downhill gold and super G bronze.

"I'm a double Olympic medalist, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to say, she said. "I obviously would have loved to have a gold medal today, but Olympic medals are never very easy to come by."

Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) for a while seemed poised to collect her third medal of these Games after storming out of the gate first for a lead that held through 12 skiers until Germany's Maria Reisch beat her out by .04 seconds.

Mancuso lost time on a tricky corner in the Frog Bank. In Wednesday's downhill (where she won silver), the banking of the hill carried racers through the turn , and Mancuso brought too much speed into the section.

"It surprised me a lot," she said. "I thought it would be similar to the downhill, where the bank would take you around. But the bank didn't take you around, it compressed you so it shot you on your tails."

She somehow stayed on her feet through a sweeping left turn in the backseat, but Mancuso got sucked low and lost time. Still, despite that mistake, flat light, and a challenging start position, she finished just 0.62 seconds out of the medals.WHISTLER, British Columbia -� It wasn't another gold, but Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) earned her second Olympic medal with a gutsy bronze in Saturday's super G. Austria's Andrea Fischbacher sped down in the day's fastest time, while Slovenia's Tina Maze edged out Vonn for the silver.

Vonn, who has already clinched the 2010 World Cup super G discipline title with two races remaining, raced from the 17th spot and cruised to more than a half-second advantage over the field. She lost critical tenths on the bottom section, however, and Fischbacher held onto a more aggressive line two spots later for a .74-second lead.

"When I came down to the finish and saw No. 1 next to my name, I thought 'Hopefully, this is another gold medal,'" she said. "Obviously, that wasn't the case, but I did my best, and I'm definitely very, very proud of another Olympic medal.

Vonn, who won gold in the World Championship downhill and super G a year ago, came into Vancouver with hopes for a medal and now has downhill gold and super G bronze.

"I'm a double Olympic medalist, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to say, she said. "I obviously would have loved to have a gold medal today, but Olympic medals are never very easy to come by."

Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) for a while seemed poised to collect her third medal of these Games after storming out of the gate first for a lead that held through 12 skiers until Germany's Maria Reisch beat her out by .04 seconds.

Mancuso lost time on a tricky corner in the Frog Bank. In Wednesday's downhill (where she won silver), the banking of the hill carried racers through the turn , and Mancuso brought too much speed into the section.

"It surprised me a lot," she said. "I thought it would be similar to the downhill, where the bank would take you around. But the bank didn't take you around, it compressed you so it shot you on your tails."

She somehow stayed on her feet through a sweeping left turn in the backseat, but Mancuso got sucked low and lost time. Still, despite that mistake, flat light, and a challenging start position, she finished just 0.62 seconds out of the medals.

WHISTLER, British Columbia -� It wasn't another gold, but Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) earned her second Olympic medal with a gutsy bronze in Saturday's super G. Austria's Andrea Fischbacher sped down in the day's fastest time, while Slovenia's Tina Maze edged out Vonn for the silver.

Vonn, who has already clinched the 2010 World Cup super G discipline title with two races remaining, raced from the 17th spot and cruised to more than a half-second advantage over the field. She lost critical tenths on the bottom section, however, and Fischbacher held onto a more aggressive line two spots later for a .74-second lead.

"When I came down to the finish and saw No. 1 next to my name, I thought 'Hopefully, this is another gold medal,'" she said. "Obviously, that wasn't the case, but I did my best, and I'm definitely very, very proud of another Olympic medal.

Vonn, who won gold in the World Championship downhill and super G a year ago, came into Vancouver with hopes for a medal and now has downhill gold and super G bronze.

"I'm a double Olympic medalist, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to say, she said. "I obviously would have loved to have a gold medal today, but Olympic medals are never very easy to come by."

Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) for a while seemed poised to collect her third medal of these Games after storming out of the gate first for a lead that held through 12 skiers until Germany's Maria Reisch beat her out by .04 seconds.

Mancuso lost time on a tricky corner in the Frog Bank. In Wednesday's downhill (where she won silver), the banking of the hill carried racers through the turn , and Mancuso brought too much speed into the section.

"It surprised me a lot," she said. "I thought it would be similar to the downhill, where the bank would take you around. But the bank didn't take you around, it compressed you so it shot you on your tails."

She somehow stayed on her feet through a sweeping left turn in the backseat, but Mancuso got sucked low and lost time. Still, despite that mistake, flat light, and a challenging start position, she finished just 0.62 seconds out of the medals.

Austria's Andrea Fischbacher upset Vonn in the super-G at the Vancouver Olympics on Saturday. Vonn earned bronze behind surprise silver? medalist Tina Maze of Slovenia.

While many of the favorites struggled with a sharp right turn midway down, Vonn made it through that section without a problem. She then lost nearly half a second on the bottom section of the course.

"Once I got past those difficult sections, I kind of backed off the gas pedal," Vonn said. "I felt like I just didn't ski as aggressively as I could have, and I think that's where I lost the race."

The Austrians, who won 14 Alpine medals including four golds in Turin, had gotten off to a slow start. Elisabeth Goergl's bronze in the downhill had been their only medal so far. Fischbacher was reduced to tears after placing fourth in the downhill, finishing only 0.03 seconds behind Goergl.

"At first I was really sad," Fischbacher said. "Then I was just saying, 'OK, maybe I make it in the super-G.'"

Her coach, Juergen Kriechbaum, set the super-G course according to International Ski Federation rules that rotate the job to correspond with the higher-ranked super-G skiers. Fischbacher navigated her way down Franz's Run in 1 minute, 20.14 seconds.Link

b