U.S. Breaks Through Moseley, Street Grab Country’s First Golds
The United States’ bumpy ride finally came to an end at the Winter Games as freestyle skier Jonny Moseley won the moguls event and downhill skier Picabo Street quickly followed suit in the women’s super-G.
First, at Iizuna Kogen, the scoreboard flashed a score of 26.93 points for Moseley, the last of 16 competitors to ski, and Team USA had its first medal at Nagano.
“I got No. 1!” shouted Moseley, 22, of Tiburon, Calif. “I can’t believe it. Oh my God!”
“Air” Jonny pulled off a gravity-defying 360 Mute Grab Jump complete with an eye-grabbing full helicopter rotation to break the U.S. drought.
“I wasn’t thinking about the gold at the top,” he said. “But when I landed that heli, I knew I was golden. …
“It’s great to represent a country like the United States. This is a dream come true. Now what do I do? I’m going to Disneyland. How about that?”
Finland took the other two medals: Janne Lahtela won the silver with 26.00 points and Sami Mustonen the bronze with 25.76.
The moguls event is scored by judges, who count 50 percent for turns and 25 percent each for speed and jumps.
At Hakuba, Street blazed to a gold medal with a 1:18.02 run on the Happa’one course, beating unheralded Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister by .01. The bronze went to Alexandra Missnitzer of Austria with a 1:18.09.
“I made a major mistake in the middle,” Street said breathlessly, “but that only made me mad and I feel I made up a lot of time on the bottom.”
Street, who shot to stardom with a surprise silver medal in the downhill four years ago in Lillehammer, had been struggling after knee surgery for over a year. Her best finish on the World Cup circuit this year was 11th, and she ranked a mere 24th in overall super-G World Cup points.
And her chances seemed to dim even more when she crashed in a European race just over a week ago, briefly losing consciousness.
Street raced second and watched as star competitors fell by the wayside. When Martina Ertl of Germany, racing ninth, came in with a 118.32, only superstar Katja Seizinger of Germany appeared to be left, and the overall World Cup leader seemed to get off to a faster start than Street.
“She’s gaining on me, she’s gaining on me,” Street chirped as she watched a huge TV monitor. “But I’ve got her beat on the bottom.” And she did, as the favorite Seizinger came in at 1:18.44 and finished sixth.
Notes
The U.S. men’s hockey team named Chris Chelios of the Chicago Blackhawks as captain, with Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers and Keith Tkachuk of the Phoenix Coyotes as alternates. USA debuts Friday against Sweden.
Aleksandr Koreshkov’s goal with 1:21 left to play gave Kazakstan a 4-3 upset victory over Slovakia in a battle for the last spot in the hockey final round. Belarus, which already clinched a second-round berth, was held to a 2-2 draw by Japan.