By Jesse Liebman --
February 25, 2010
Defending Olympic gold medalist Julia Mancuso saw her chance for a repeat in the giant slalom competition take a hit Wednesday, thanks to U.S. teammate Lindsey Vonn. A series of unfortunate moments during the first run may have cost Mancuso her shot to defend her title.
Initially, Vonn crashed while flying back-first into a retaining fence, and broke her right pinkie finger. While she was being attended to by personnel, Mancuso -- who started her first run at the 18th start position -- was flagged off the course because Vonn was still receiving attention.
Mancuso had to take a snowmobile back to the top, started again at No. 31, and then finished 18th in the first run, with a time of 1 minute 16.42 seconds, 1.30 seconds behind leader Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.
"This was probably the worst thing that could happen at the Olympics," Mancuso said. "To get flagged on the run of your defending gold medal run . . . it's probably the most unexpected thing ever."
Mancuso later questioned why she wasn't flagged earlier.
Race referee Atle Skaardal explained that it took a few
seconds to determine if Vonn's crash warranted a stop:
"At that time Mancuso was already on her way so it was impossible to stop her at the start," he said.
Dense fog at Whistler Creekside course pushed the second run to Thursday morning, but many are focused on the off-the-slopes drama between Vonn and Mancuso. Recently, Mancuso expressed resentment toward Vonn. Mancuso believes too much focus has been placed on Vonn.
Last week, while praising Vonn for her success, Mancuso stated that she wished the rest of the ski team got more attention. Mancuso also told SI.com, "you come to meetings and it's like a bad day if Lindsey didn't do well."
"It definitely has hurt me that [Mancuso] has said some negative things about me," Vonn said. "All I can do is to continue to support her the way I always have been, and hope that she reciprocates that."
Mancuso said she wasn't specifically mad at Vonn when she
stormed out of the finish area between runs.
"Really, it's just the circumstances," she said. "It just doesn't seem right. This stuff doesn't happen . . . ever."
