Sestriere, Italy – The weather was foul with blowing snow and poor visibility, but Californian Julia Mancuso used it to her advantage today, winning a gold medal in the Olympic giant slalom and lifting the spirits of the U.S. Ski Team in the final women’s alpine event of the Turin Games.
Mancuso, 21, ended a medal drought for the U.S. women, whose previous best result here was seventh. The only other alpine medal for the U.S. here was Ted Ligety’s gold in the combined on Feb. 14. Mancuso became the seventh U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing, the first since Picabo Street won the super-G in 1998.
Tanja Poutiainen took the silver medal, the first alpine medal for Finland in the Olympics, .67 of a second behind Mancuso. Anna Ottosson of Sweden took the bronze.
“Because it was bad weather, it made it seem less like the Olympics, because you always dream of the Olympics as the most perfect race, tons of people there, all this pressure,” Mancuso said. “It was sort of just another day on a stormy race course. That sort of helped me take the pressure.”
A fan favorite here because of her Italian ancestry and light-hearted attitude, Mancuso posted the fastest first run but could not relax because Anja Paerson was only .18 of a second behind her. Paerson, who won the past two World Cup overall titles, had a bad second run to finish sixth.
“After the first run I was really excited to be in the lead,” Mancuso said. “I had a really great GS race right before this in Ofterschwang (Germany, third place on Feb. 4), so I definitely was coming in here with hopes of being on the podium and perhaps a win. In the second run I was unaware that people were having problems, or the best girls were actually slower. I just went out of the start knowing Anja was only 18 hundredths behind me so I had to really put down a run to make it happen. I played it safe, took risks where I could.”
Mancuso missed posting the fastest second run by only .01 of a second. Paerson made a mistake on the top of the course that hurt her in a flat section below, giving her the 14th-best second run time.
“I’m happy, this has been a good Olympics,” said Paerson, who won a gold medal in combined and two bronze medals here. “It was always a tough fight with the snow. I really wanted to have a medal today, but you can’t have it all.”
Vail’s Sarah Schleper was 12th in the first run but failed to finish the second. Another Ski Club Vail racer, Lindsey Kildow, was entered but did not race. Kildow is still feeling the effects of a frightening crash in downhill training on Feb. 13.
Despite the ski team’s dismal record before today’s race, Mancuso said the mood was good.
“Our team was definitely disappointed after the speed races (downhill and super-G), but there was nothing we could do,” Mancuso said. “I talked to all the coaches and all the girls, everyone went out there and put forth their best effort. Skis weren’t running, Lindsey had a crash — just a lot of things happened but everyone was really proud of how they performed, just didn’t get the result. We didn’t have any regrets, we all did our best and that was what it was about.
“It’s really cool that it’s the last race and I was able to win, but for our team it was always about going out there and doing our best.”
Mancuso won five gold medals in three trips to the world juniors championships and claimed bronze medals at the 2005 world championships in giant slalom and super-G. In her other races here she was seventh in downhill and 11th in super-G.
“I love Italy,” Mancuso said, “and it’s really cool because I have a ton of Italian fans.”
