The attention on the men’s side will focus on Bode Miller, who is capable of winning five medals or crashing in all five events. Only he knows what he’s really thinking and feeling, but he looks and sounds like a guy who just wants to get the whole thing over with – not just the Olympics but his career as a ski racer as well. If Miller falters, soft-spoken Daron Rahlves could pick up the slack and become the star skier of the Turin Games for the U.S. with a couple of medals. Two great themes for the women’s races: the scintillating rivalry between Croatia’s Janica Kostelic and Sweden’s Anja Paerson, which will play out over all five events; and whether the talented young Americans – Lindsey Kildow, Julia Mancuso, Resi Stiegler – are ready to win medals.
U.S. Olympic team
Men
Jimmy Cochran, 24, Keene, N.H.
Chip Knight, 31, Stowe, Vt.
Ted Ligety, 21, Park City, Utah
Scott Macartney, 28, Redmond, Wash.
Bode Miller, 28, Franconia, N.H.
Steve Nyman, 23, Orem, Utah
Daron Rahlves, 32, Sugar Bowl, Calif.
Erik Schlopy, 33, Park City, Utah
Marco Sullivan, 25, Squaw Valley, Calif.
Women
Kirsten Clark, 28, Raymond, Maine
Stacey Cook, 21, Truckee, Calif.
Lindsey Kildow, 21, Park City, Utah
Kristina Koznick, 30, Eagan, Minn.
Caroline Lalive, 26, Steamboat Springs (injured)
Libby Ludlow, 24, Bellevue, Wash.
Julia Mancuso, 21, Olympic Valley, Calif.
Kaylin Richardson, 21, Edina, Minn.
Sarah Schleper, 26, Vail
Resi Stiegler, 20, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Downhill
Sure bet
Michael Walchhofer, Austria
Americans Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves went 1-2 at the 2005 world championships, and the Austrians will be determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Walchhofer finished third in that race, and he has been hot this season, highlighted by a win in the prestigious Hahnenkamm in Kitzbuehel, Austria.
Who to watch
Daron Rahlves, USA
Austrian Michael Walchhofer will win a medal in the downhill. So will Rahlves. Being diminutive for a downhiller (5-feet-9, 185 pounds) puts Rahlves at a disadvantage in gliding sections, but nobody’s better nailing turns in the steep, technical sections.
Bode Miller, USA
He’s capable of almost anything – winning with ease, crashing or making a recovery that defies the laws of physics – but in his career he has only won three downhills against top-flight competition: two World Cup races and last year’s world championship.
Michaela Dorfmeister, Austria
With seven career World Cup victories, 21 podium appearances and two world championships medals in downhill, Dorfmeister figures to end her career with a gold medal in the event. She will have to hold off the Croatian superstar Janica Kostelic and American Lindsey Kildow.
Did you know?
Germany’s Katja Seizinger is the only person to repeat as Olympic downhill champion (1994, 1998). Switzerland’s Bernhard Russi, gold in 1972, missed repeating by 0.33 of a second. Switzerland’s Peter Mueller won silver in 1984 and 1988. Norway’s Lasse Kjus took silver in 1998 and 2002.
Colorado connection
Lindsey Kildow, USA
As a 17-year-old who finished sixth in combined at the Salt Lake Games, the Ski Club Vail racer marked herself as one of the bright U.S. hopes for the future in the post-Picabo Street era. The future may be now. If her ski technicians can rectify a gliding problem with her skis, she will be a good bet in this race. She finished fourth at the world championships last season, missing a medal by less than a quarter of a second.
Best of all time
Franz Klammer, Austria
There’s no question about the most memorable Olympic downhill performance: Franz Klammer’s desperate, death-defying dash to gold-medal glory at Innsbruck in 1976. Taking huge risks, skiing like a madman in front of 60,000 crazed Austrians cheering as if their national pride depended on him, Klammer edged defending champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland. “I had to win the race,” Klammer said.
Super-G
Sure bet
Janica Kostelic, Croatia
Kostelic claimed silver in this event four years ago, one of her four medals at the Salt Lake Games. She is running away with the World Cup this season and she is a great big-event racer who has won five world championships medals in addition to her Olympic stardom.
Who to watch
The Austrians
Michaela Dorfmeister and ageless Alexandra Meissnitzer on the women’s side; Hermann Maier, Hannes Reichelt and maybe even Benjamin Raich warrant close attention.
The Americans
Bode Miller, Daron Rahlves and Kirsten Clark have a good chance to be in the medals. Clark won a silver medal at the 2003 world championships but had to rebuild her career after suffering a knee injury in a horrendous crash in 2004. She’s back.
Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway
A rising star and five-event racer, the 23-year-old figures to win multiple medals at Vancouver in 2010. If he wins one at the Turin Games, it probably will come in this event.
Did you know?
The super-G was created on the World Cup in 1982 to make it more fair for downhillers to compete with slalom-giant slalom specialists for the overall World Cup. Ridiculed at the time by Phil Mahre as the “stupid-G,” it became a world championships event in 1987 and an Olympic event in 1988.
Where are they now?
Picabo Street, USA
The greatest female downhill racer in U.S. history, Street enjoyed her finest moment at the 1998 Olympics when she overcame a career-threatening knee injury to win super-G gold. Street retired after finishing 16th in downhill at the 2002 Games and gave birth to a son in 2004. A resident of Park City, Utah, she makes frequent appearances for sponsors and charities. She will cover the Turin Games for NBC’s “Today” show.
Combined
Sure bet
Bode Miller, USA
With Miller, especially in slalom, there always is the chance a crash could cost him a medal he seemed destined to win. But as World Cup co-founder Bob Beattie says, Miller could snowplow in the combined slalom and still win a combined medal. He won a silver at the Salt Lake Games despite a near-crash in the combined downhill – he saved himself with one of the most amazing recoveries in ski racing history – and a ragged first run in the combined slalom.
Who to watch
Lindsey Kildow, USA
If Kildow fails to medal in the downhill, this could be where she makes her breakthrough. She was sixth in the combined at the Salt Lake Games and fourth at last year’s world championships by 0.2 of a second.
Janica Kostelic, Croatia
She won combined gold medals at the past two world championships and the Salt Lake Olympics. Enough said.
Banjamin Raich, Austria
Same as Kostelic: combined gold medals at the past two world championships and the Salt Lake Olympics.
Giant Slalom
Sure bet
Anja Paerson, Sweden
Since the start of the season, the two-time World Cup overall champion has said winning a gold medal was her primary goal. “That’s the only thing I’m missing,” Paerson said in Aspen in December. “I have a big pressure on myself. I know the Swedish people really want me to come back as a champion.” She won GS gold at the past two world championships.
Who to watch
The Austrians
Benjamin Raich, who took silver at last year’s world championships, won the World Cup GS title last season and probably will win it this season, too. Don’t count out Hermann Maier in what figures to be his last Olympic race.
The Americans
Bode Miller won silver at the Salt Lake Games, gold at the 2003 world championships and the World Cup season title in 2004. Daron Rahlves could surprise – the speed specialist did it at the 2005 world championships with a bronze medal.
Janica Kostelic, Croatia
She took the giant slalom gold at the Salt Lake Games and the 2003 world championships. Might well have done it at last year’s world championships – where she won three gold medals – but she had the flu the morning of the GS and withdrew.
Slalom
Sure bet
Giorgio Rocca, Italy
Rocca won bronze medals at the past two world championships and swept the first five slaloms this season. The atmosphere for the men’s slalom, with a dominant Italian the favorite, figures to rival the uproarious days of Alberto Tomba. Pressure? Rocca managed just fine at the Bormio world championships last season, not far from his hometown of Livigno.
Who to watch
Ted Ligety, USA
It might have seemed a fluke when Ligety, 21, earned his first World Cup podium at Beaver Creek in December, but Ligety has remained in the thick of the slalom standings. Talented and fearless, he’s a big hope for the team in 2010 and beyond.
Janica Kostelic, Croatia
The four-time winner at the Salt Lake Games could go into the Turin Games slalom with four medals and a good chance to capture her fifth.
Kristina Koznick, USA
Can “Koz” forget the heartbreak of previous Olympics and world championships and win a medal in her final season? It may be even harder now that Koznick has disclosed she’ll be skiing with a partially torn knee ligament.
