Whistler's difficult Franz's super G course created an exciting Olympic race for the women brave enough to challenge it on the sunny Saturday morning (Feb. 20). After five of the first 11 racers failed to finish their runs, struggling to handle early parts of the course, Austria's Andrea Fischbacher and Slovenia's Tina Maze stormed past American star Lindsey Vonn to take the top two steps on the podium.
"It's just crazy. A dream is coming true," a delighted Fischbacher said of her victory.
Whistler's Britt Janyk blasted out of the gate as the 25th racer and posted times mere fractions of a second behind the leaders in the early going, but a jump nearly toppled her. Janyk held it together and recovered to speed into 17th place, grabbing her head in the finish area over the mistake and then waving to the roaring crowd.
"I nearly started crying in the finish, because (of) the energy and the emotions and all the focus, the intensity that you put into a run, and I came down here just to the roar of the crowd," Janyk said.
The first-time Olympian, who sped to sixth in the women's downhill, said her tough recovery on the jump unsettled her, and after that spot her run became a blur.
"Once I realized I was on my feet, I wanted to come to the finish and finish for the crowd and for everybody here that's been cheering me on," she said.
Fernie's Emily Brydon crashed into a gate and wiped out, becoming one of 15 skiers who couldn't complete their runs, as did teammate Shona Rubens. Olympic rookie Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver finished 27th.
Brydon said she felt like "one giant walking bruise" after her run, and though she laid her "heart and soul" onto the track in her Olympic races, it just wasn't her time to shine.
"I think I was really trying to take risks today and 'pin it,' as one of my coaches said, but I think I pinned it a little bit too much," Brydon said, noting that she might have needed to set up the turn where she crashed a bit more. But, she added, "That's super G. In order to win you need to take risks, and today's risks just didn't pay off."
Fischbacher and Maze attacked the course from start to finish, while Vonn admitted that she slightly took her foot off the gas after blasting confidently through the troublesome top and Frog Bank turn. She felt she had made it through the section where many racers had trouble, happy that she had "conquered" it, and there weren't any hard parts left.
"As soon as I passed the Frog Bank I stopped charging," Vonn said, adding that she wished she had skied "a bit more aggressively today."
Still, she said she was proud to have earned two Olympic medals so far, and she'll cherish both equally, hanging them by her bed. She said she never bought into the hype that projected she could win five gold medals in the Games.
"Today I fought hard. I didn't ski as well as I could have, (but) a bronze medal is still an Olympic medal," Vonn said.
Vonn, the 2010 women's downhill gold medallist and World Cup leader, screamed with joy as she shot across the finish line into first place ahead of Austria's Elisabeth Georgl.
But first Fischbacher, crashing into the panels at the end of the course with a triumphant fist punch, and then Maze overtook the American who owns 31 World Cup wins.
Fischbacher said she carried a bit of anger with her after she missed out on a bronze medal in Wednesday's (Feb. 17) women's downhill by just three hundredths of a second, so she set out to attack the 1,900-metre course from start to finish.
"It was a crazy run," Fischbacher said. The Austrian is currently ranked third in the World Cup super G standings, and she won bronze in the discipline at the 2009 World Championships.
Maze, who admitted to some fear of the Whistler women's downhill course, said overcoming those qualms helped her do better in the super G. Having posted her best-ever Olympic result with a fifth-place finish in Thursday's (Feb. 18) super combined race, Maze skillfully handled the Franz's course to jump and throw both fists in the air in the finish area.
"I'm happy that I did do the downhill and feel the fear and show the courage today," she said.
Janyk said her home-hill Olympic experience has been "more incredible than I could have imagined.
"It was really, really special," she said.
