WHISTLER (AP) — Andrea Fischbacher of Austria won the women's Olympic
super-G gold medal Saturday, denying
Lindsey Vonn a sweep of the speed events.
Taking advantage of a tricky course-set arranged by one of her coaches, Fischbacher navigated her way down Franz's Run in 1 minute, 20.14 seconds.
Tina Maze of Slovenia took a surprise silver, 0.49 second behind, and Vonn had to settle for bronze, 0.74 second back.
Vonn won gold in the downhill to open her Olympics, then wiped out in the slalom leg of the super-combined. Depending on how her bruised right shin holds up, the American still has two events remaining at the Vancouver Games —giant slalom and slalom.
Julia Mancuso, the American who won silver medals in her opening two events, had trouble through a sharp right turn midway through her run and finished ninth.
It's the first Alpine victory at these games for Austria, which entered the race with only Elisabeth Goergl's downhill bronze. At the 2006 Turin Games, Austria won 14 medals — four of them gold.
Fischbacher was reduced to tears after placing fourth in the downhill, finishing only three hundredths of a second behind Goergl. Her coach, Juergen Kriechbaum, set the super-G course according to International Ski Federation rules that rotate the job to correspond with the higher-ranked super-G skiers.
While Vonn has already wrapped up the season-long World Cup super-G title by winning three of the five races held so far, Fischbacher stands third in the event standings.
Fischbacher finished second behind Vonn in the last super-G before the Olympics, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Jan. 31.
Fischbacher has won two World Cup races in her career, one super-G and one downhill — the last coming almost exactly a year ago in Bansko, Bulgaria.
