ASPEN — Over the years since the first World Cup races here in 1968, Aspen has given U.S. Ski Team racers a lot of support, and the team has seldom been able to return the favor.
But in the 67th World Cup race on venerable Aspen Mountain, which has a long history of ski racing that includes hosting the 1950 FIS world championships, Julia Mancuso brought Aspen the first women’s giant slalom podium finish by an American woman since 1981. Mancuso placed third Saturday behind Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.
“Everyone always talks about curses and statistics, and as athletes we’re just trying to ski fast and hope you make the podium — or win,” said Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif. “I’m really excited. I have a whole support crew from Squaw Valley here. It’s nice that I could get on the podium and give them a good show.”
Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, who captured the first giant slalom victory of her career a month ago in Soelden, Austria, battled through discomfort because of back pain and finished 12th. Sarah Schleper of Vail failed to finish the first run, and 16-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin — in her third World Cup start — was 35th in the first run. Only the top 30 qualify for a second run.
Mancuso, a double silver medalist at the Vancouver Olympics who was the 2006 Olympic champion in giant slalom, captured her first GS podium since 2007 in front of a packed grandstand on a chilly but beautiful blue-sky day. Aspen is a tough mountain with lots of terrain changes, tricky snow and difficult light conditions, and Mancuso skied it beautifully.
“I really like Aspen,” Mancuso said. “I think every time I’ve raced here, I’ve been really close to the top 10 or (in the) top 10. I think, in general, you just have to think about free skiing, not really look at the gates because there’s so much terrain. It’s more about flowing, moving with terrain to the finish. There’s the one road where it flattens out in the middle, but other than that, it’s always moving and kind of steep. It’s a lot of fun.”
Other American women on the podium here include Kristina Koznick (third place in slalom in 2000 and 2004), Tamara McKinney (1981 GS winner), Cindy Nelson (third place in 1981 downhill) and Kiki Cutter (1968 slalom, third place). Men’s podium finishers include Bode Miller (2001), Phil Mahre (1983 and 1984), Bill Johnson (1984) and Billy Kidd (1968).
In recent years the Aspen World Cup traditionally has been a women’s event the weekend after Thanksgiving. And the World Cup schedule is peculiar — the season began with men’s and women’s giant slalom races in Soelden last month, then shut down until this weekend. Nobody really knows where their skiing is yet.
Then there’s the pressure of being the home team, on a holiday weekend.
“Everyone comes in here and is really nervous and just wants to ski really fast because their family’s here and their friends are here,” Mancuso said. “I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily more pressure, but there’s definitely more nerves. And it’s a difficult hill.”
Ski team officials feel the pressure even more. This is the only stop in the U.S. for the women’s World Cup, so they dearly want success here when exposure is greatest. They’ll be looking for more in today’s slalom.
“You have a race at home, the athletes want to perform in front of the home crowd and their families,” said U.S. Ski Team alpine director Patrick Riml. “It’s the best that can happen to us, to have a podium.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
