Sestriere, Italy – The problem with advertising your goals is that everyone knows when you’re falling short. And if those goals are ambitious, people might think you were arrogant to set them so high.
That’s the predicament the U.S. ski team is battling midway through the Turin Olympics. With five of the 10 alpine events in the books, a team that set a goal of winning eight medals has one, and that came from the youngest, most inexperienced man on the team.
The team’s biggest star, Bode Miller, has been shut out of the medals and failed to finish two of the three events he has raced.
“There were disappointments as far as getting medals and helping my team achieve team goals, but I think my skiing hasn’t been bad,” Miller told The Denver Post on Sunday. “It’s been unfortunate, more than anything.”
Highly regarded teammate Daron Rahlves wasn’t competitive in his best two events, the downhill and the super-giant slalom. The women haven’t been close to medals in their two alpine events, and one of their top racers – Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow – has been hampered by injuries she suffered in a hideous training crash a week ago.
The alpine team’s lone moment of glory came from Utahn Ted Ligety, 21, who won a gold medal in the combined event – an event Miller was supposed to win.
“In terms of giving ourselves focus, we have set that goal of achieving eight medals,” alpine director Jesse Hunt said. “Certainly we are coming in here with a team that we could accomplish that with.”
Hunt’s boss, Bill Marolt, isn’t saying much – for now.
“We’ve still got a long way to go,” said Marolt, chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. “I’m not going to make an evaluation until we’re all the way through it and we see where we are.”
The USSA isn’t the only U.S. governing body licking its wounds. The women’s hockey team failed to reach the gold-medal game for the first time since women’s hockey became part of the Olympics in 1998. Figure skater Johnny Weir faded away in the men’s long program. Short-track skater Apolo Anton Ohno fell in the 1,000 meters and had to settle for a bronze medal in the 1,500. The luge doubles team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin crashed after winning medals in the past two Olympics.
The bright spot for the U.S. is that it is tied with Germany for the most gold medals, seven, and is tied for third in the overall medals count at 13, five behind Germany.
“We’re in the hunt as we start off the second half of this thing with seven gold medals,” said Steve Roush, chief of sport performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee. “We are right where we wanted to be, which is in range to take the total-medal and gold-medal counts.”
The USSA has gotten six medals from its snowboarders, but in moguls skiing the women were shut out and the men settled for a bronze medal by Vail’s Toby Dawson. Loveland’s Jeremy Bloom, a former world champion, finished sixth.
The scrutiny has been especially harsh on the alpine team because it is, on paper, the best the U.S. has sent to the Olympics. The roster includes five racers with 12 world- championship medals.
“We come in as such a strong team this year, and we’re expected to bring home medals,” said slalom/giant-slalom racer Kristina Koznick, who has yet to compete here. “This team is phenomenal. It’s frustrating, and I know I’m not the only one frustrated. I know everybody is frustrated with the results.”
The frustration is particularly acute because Miller drew unusual attention for an American ski racer in the run-up to the Games. Several national magazines put him on the covers of their Olympic preview editions.
But no one who has followed Mil ler’s results on the World Cup circuit this season could be shocked at his failures here. In the 20 World Cup races since he won a giant slalom at Beaver Creek on Dec. 3, he has had only three podium results as one of the top three racers. In 30 races this season, counting three in the Olympics, he has failed to finish 12.
The real surprise has been Rahlves, who won three World Cup downhills this season but finished 10th in the Olympic downhill and ninth in the super-G. Rahlves won a super-G world title in 2001 and was second behind Miller in the downhill at last year’s world championships. He seemed poised for big things after winning the first downhill training run by a wide margin.
“I just shake my head at the way I was skiing,” Rahlves said after Saturday’s super-G. “I needed to be clean and smooth, and I just wasn’t doing that.”
The ski team has had some of its most successful major championships when expectations were low. The greatest example came at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics in Norway when Sports Illustrated wrote it off as “Uncle Sam’s lead-footed snowplow brigade” and the team won four alpine medals.
“This team is in a different place,” Hunt said. “They have had success, and expectation comes along with that.”
SI put Miller, Rahlves, Ligety and slalom racer Erik Schlopy on the cover of this year’s Olympic preview – its first ski cover since Tommy Moe won the Olympic downhill in 1994.
The alpine team still has several medal opportunities. Miller and Rahlves could contend in the giant slalom today, and Ligety will be a favorite in the slalom Saturday. Kildow and Julia Mancuso should contend in today’s super-G, and Mancuso bears watching in the giant slalom Friday.
“We’re going to have keep hammering away,” Hunt said. “We’re halfway through. There’s a lot of racing still to do.”
Staff writer John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
