After newly-crowned giant slalom gold medallist Mikaela Shiffrin’s disappointing fourth place in Friday’s slalom, all eyes were on Vonn for a U.S. medal comeback as she opened her Pyeongchang campaign in brilliant sunshine.
Advertisement
“No. 1 is always really hard, especially in super-G”, Vonn told NBC. “I have two more races left, so I hope those will go a little bit better”.
A favorite to medal in the super-G Friday in the Winter Olympics, Vonn instead slipped in the final stretch and ended up finishing sixth, a scant 0.27 seconds behind gold medalist Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic.
Ledecka is far from finished at the Olympics. That finally happened Saturday on the biggest stage in the world. “All the other girls didn’t risk a lot”, she said.
“Our serviceman waxed them a lot of times”.
Asked whether she thought she had won the gold medal, Veith said: “At first, yeah”.
Heartbroken to miss her chance at a medal just days before her flight to PyeongChang, her friend and teammate Lindsey Vonn was by her side.
She could barely believe it herself, and her face as her time flashed up was priceless. She has a very good record at world championships. Ledecka was the junior FIS snowboarding world champion in both the parallel slalom and the parallel giant slalom in 2013.
“That’s so impressive”, skier Michelle Gisin of Switzerland said. “I didn’t tell Laura until just after as I didn’t want to jinx it”.
“We were all at the top watching and we all went silent”, veteran ski racer Sarah Schleper of Mexico, running 39th, told Reuters after the race.
Following her devastating loss, people took to social media to blast Vonn and attribute her loss to her opinion of President Trump.
She knew right away she was in trouble. “I knew it was possible, but I didn’t expect it”.
“I love this surprise that sports can provide”, said Sofia Goggia of Italy, who finished 11th.
“I thought this was a mistake”, she said. “But today she did”. “I’m super happy”, she said. “She wanted to come down here and be the first person ever to ski and snowboard race”. That injury forced her out of the Sochi Games. She is a favorite for gold when the women on snowboards hit the parallel giant slalom course at Phoenix Park on February 24. “I’m really trying to win and do a good run every time but I didn’t really realsie that this really can happen”.
The field was stacked with some of alpine skiing’s strongest athletes – including defending champ Anna Veith of Austria, American star Lindsey Vonn and Swiss skier Lara Gut. More spectators reportedly have also started travelling to the Olympic Plaza to view medal ceremonies. “You know, I want to represent our country well, and I don’t think there are a lot of people now in our government who do that”. Hes been such a big part of my life, and I really hoped that he would be alive to see me. Hendrickson says if she weren’t so focused on her ski jumping appearance at this year’s Olympic games, she, too, would have taken her place at one of the Women’s Marches.
Even before Saturday’s disappointing finish, these Games promised to be a particularly emotional Olympics for Vonn. “This is for my Grandpa!”
Vonn will still compete in the downhill and combined events in PyeongChang.
Advertisement
Vonn was trying to become the first female racer to win Olympic gold in both downhill and the super-G.
