Mancuso can’t catch European juggernaut, finishes eighth
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Julia Mancuso thought too much. Again. It cost her. Again. The mental game planted just enough doubt to spoil Mancuso’s bid to join Bode Miller as America’s most decorated Olympic skier with five medals.
Mancuso and Team USA suffered another blow Saturday at Rosa Khutor Alpine Center while Austria reigned on a super-G course designed by its coach Fabien Winkler.
With eight of the 13 racers before her failing to finish, Mancuso worried about getting to the bottom of the challenging course instead of letting loose.
“The super-G takes confidence and watching some of these people go down and have bad runs it kind of took me back a notch,” she said.
Austrian Anna Fenninger won the gold medal, followed by Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Ri- esch and Austrian Nicole Hosp. Fenninger completed the track in 1 minute, 25.52 seconds — a whopping .55 of a second ahead of the silver medalist.
Mancuso placed eighth, 1.52 seconds behind the winner on a day 18 of 49 starters couldn’t manage the course.
After five of 10 alpine races, the United States has a mere medal — Mancuso’s bronze in the downhill-slalom super combined race.
It’s quite a contrast to the record haul of eight medals four years ago in Vancouver.
But with star Lindsey Vonn unable to compete because of a knee injury, the United States doesn’t appear strong enough to contend with the European speed stars.
The top five Saturday — Lara Gut of Switzerland was fourth and Tina Maze of Slovenia fifth — represent a “murderer’s row” of women alpine skiers.
Mancuso hoped to break out of Vonn’s shadows in Sochi. The two have skied against each other since childhood.
But so far the Lake Tahoe, Calif., skier isn’t gaining much traction. Yet, she was feeling positive after the race because Mancuso has three top-10 finishes in Sochi.
“This is still my secondbest ski race this year,” Mancuso said of the super-G finish. “Everyone is still looking big picture. Everyone is good at putting things in perspective.”
Mancuso, 29, ends the Sochi Games on Tuesday with the giant slalom, a race Mancuso won at the 2006 Turin Games.