WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Double medal winner Lindsey Vonn ended her Olympics today by straddling a gate in the first run of slalom.
Skiing in a snowstorm with a broken bone in her right pinkie finger, Vail’s Vonn was about a third of the way down the course when she got caught off her line and skied over the gate.
Riesch won the the slalom title for her second gold medal of the Winter Olympics. She led after the first leg and had a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 42.89 seconds through the snow and fog.
Marlies Schild of Austria was 0.43 second back to take silver, adding to her bronze in the same event at the 2006 Turin Games.
Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic trailed by 1.01 to get bronze.
Vail’s Sarah Scheleper was the highest U.S. finisher, in 16th, trailing Riesch by 2.99.
Schleper was ninth in the morning and was fast in her second run, until needing an agile recovery just to finish. She swung both ski poles in the air in frustration upon crossing the line.
On a day of difficult weather conditions, racers went through a steady fall of wet snow in the morning.
Vonn dismissed her injuries as a cause for skiing out.
“My injury had nothing to do with me going out today,” Vonn said, smiling her way through her last finish-area interviews of the Games. “That was just pure bad luck or bad skiing.”
Vonn was a medal hopeful in slalom but not a favorite by any means. She finished second in the first World Cup slalom of the season but finished only three of the seven slalom races this season.
She leaves here with a gold medal in downhill, a bronze medal in super-G and returns to the World Cup in search of her third consecutive World Cup overall title. She leads this year’s standings in a close race with her best friend on the tour, Germany’s Riesch.
Vonn broke her finger crashing in the first run of giant slalom on Wednesday.
“I gave it my all in every event I competed in, and I’m going home happy,” Vonn said. “Maybe a little more broken and bruised than I was when I came here. but going home very happy.”
Vonn still has a huge goal to achieve before she can relax. Only one American has won three World Cup overall titles: Phil Mahre (1981-83), and Vonn hopes to share that distinction with him.
“It is a tight race, but it’s a lot easier for me than the Olympics,” Vonn said. “I’ve been in the hunt for the overall a few years in a row now, and I know what to expect. I know the pressure, I know the expectation, I know how to deal with that very well.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1609 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report
