An 'L' For Lindsey
First was Mikaela Shiffrin, vomiting moments before her first run in the women’s slalom, and failing to medal in the event she has dominated. Next was Lindsey Vonn, skidding near the end of her Super-G run and finishing tied for sixth.
This wasn’t the start to the Pyeongchang Olympics Team USA had in mind for its superstar skiers.
Following Shiffrin’s struggles Friday, Vonn got off to a strong start Saturday afternoon at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but nearly fell on one of the last turns, going wide and using her left hand to brace herself, costing her precious fractions of seconds. She finished with a respectable but underwhelming time of 1:21.49. After crossing the final line, Vonn, the first skier in the event, put her hands on her head and bowed in disappointment.
“I tried,” a clearly disheartened Vonn said to NBC cameras at the end of the race.
“No. 1 is always really difficult, especially in Super-G. I think it was a pretty big disadvantage, to be honest,” she said later. “I attacked. I gave it everything I had. I have no regrets. I made a mistake at the bottom, but that’s what happens in Super-G’s.”
Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic won gold in a massive upset, with a time of 1:21.11, while Anna Veith of Austria won silver (1:21.12) and Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein (1:21.22) claimed bronze. With about 20 skiers to go, NBC mistakenly declared Veith the winner, saying none of the remaining competitors were legitimate threats. They even had to cut back in when Ledecka, coming from the 26th position, took the lead.
Ledecka’s run shocked even the 22year-old, who also is a snowboarder. Shortly after finishing and seeing her time, she asked, “How did that happen?”
At 33 years old, Vonn is attempting to become the oldest woman to win an Alpine medal at the Olympics. Vonn is one of the greatest skiers of all time, with a record four World Cup titles and 16 event crowns, but her Olympic totals don’t match up with those accomplishments.
She took home a bronze in the Super-G at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, along with a gold in the downhill, but missed the 2014 Sochi Games due to a right knee surgery.
Friday’s performance in the Super-G continued that disappointment. Vonn was a favorite to medal. She will have two more opportunities, in the downhill and the combined, to medal.
It has been a long wait for Vonn. She blew out her right knee in 2013, and that November, partially tore an ACL. A month later, she was back in action, but the knee wasn’t right, and she had to miss Sochi.
“It’s all that matters right now,” Vonn said last year about the Pyeongchang Games. “I came into the spotlight at the Olympics. I won a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics that changed my life. It all helps establish a legacy, and now, here’s one more shot. That’s what the Olympics can do.”
Vonn and Shiffrin will be competing against one another Wednesday in the downhill. Shiffrin, the 22-year-old Colorado native has already medaled, winning gold in the giant slalom, but entered these games hoping to medal in five events. But she had to drop out of super-G because of weather postponements and missed out on medaling in the slalom.