Olympic report
Skiing American Lindsey Vonn is getting extra time to let her badly bruised right shin rest and heal, thanks to an Olympic skiing schedule already in disarray because of wet and warm weather.
The opening women’s Alpine race, Sunday’s super-combined, was postponed Friday because the women will not have had a chance to train on the downhill course.
Thursday’s training run was scrapped after two racers started, and practice was canceled altogether for Friday and today.
Although one would imagine such developments distress plenty of people – from skiers to fans, from Olympic and skiing officials to TV types – do not count Vonn among those who wish things were going according to schedule.
“I’m lucking out pretty heavily because of all the cancellations,” she said. “Normally I would be disappointed, but for my shin, I think, this is the best possible scenario.”
The two-time overall World Cup champion has been pegged as a medal contender in all five Alpine events at the Winter Games, including an overwhelming favorite for golds in the downhill and super-G.
But that was before Vonn revealed Wednesday that she was hurt last week in pre-Olympic practice. She fell during a slalom training run and slammed her right boot against her leg.
Ski jumping Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer had the longest jump in qualifying for the normal hill event, and Michael Uhrmann of Germany led a group of 41 ski jumpers who secured a spot in the first medal event of these Olympics.
Schlierenzauer, who was among 10 jumpers who already had qualified for today’s competition based on their World Cup standings, soared 107 meters for his best jump of the week.
Nordic combined American Johnny Spillane was at the bar at the top of the normal ski hill during training and about to thrust himself down the ramp when he noticed his left ski was broken, its toe plate detached.
“When I was on the bar, I looked down. I was sliding out and pulled back off,” Spillane said.
He scrambled back down and rushed to get his backup skis in time to make the third and final run.
While disappointed over losing his favorite skis on the eve of what many expect to be a breakout Winter Games for the U.S. Nordic combined team, Spillane considers himself lucky for realizing the situation before propelling himself down the in-run.
“That would have been a real problem,” he said.
Either on the takeoff or the landing.
Spillane didn’t waste much time lamenting his lost skis, just focused on breaking in the new ones in a hurry.
“For me, the big hill is more my event anyway,” he said.
The Nordic combined race on the normal hill is Sunday, but the large hill competition isn’t until Feb. 25.
Rejected The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Brazil’s application to enter the Olympic women’s bobsleigh event only days after permitting an Australian team to join an expanded competition.
The three-member CAS panel released its decision Friday, ending the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation’s request for its team.