Lindsey Vonn was a woman on mission in Vancouver.  Looking to make up for the unfortunate mishap that injured her during the 2006 Torino Winter Games, Vonn raced down the mountain in today’s women’s downhill event, capturing the gold with relative ease despite fighting a injured shin.  Vonn finished the race in 1:44.19, ahead of silver medalist and fellow American Julia Mancuso by 0.56 seconds.

Vonn Captures Gold

Vonn arrived in Vancouver as the darling of the Winter Games, hoping for a breakthrough that rivaled Michael Phelps in the most recent Summer Games.  Vonn’s face has been everywhere, as well as her uncovered body in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition.  Competing in five events during these Olympics, Vonn was dominating on the World Cup circuit before an injury in her final prep race.  Vonn revealed the injury at a press conference last week to the surprise of skiing insiders.

The schedule delay clearly played to Vonn’s favor, as her race was pushed back due to the inclement weather that has disrupted the skiing events in Vancouver.  Vonn registered the fastest qualifying run earlier this week and backed it up when it counted.

Julia Mancuso’s silver medal finish was a big surprise, as she was not expected to be a serious contender in the downhill.  Mancuso’s specialty is the giant slalom and competitors better take notice if she was this good on the downhill course, she is going to be tough to beat later on in the Olympics.  Getting the bronze medal was Elizabeth Georgl of Austria.

Vonn’s close friend and toughest competitor, Maria Riesch of Germany faltered on the course coming in eight.  Riesch was the only female skier to have defeated Vonn on the slopes this World Cup season.

For those of you that thought you missed the race, don’t worry.  NBC shows nothing live if it ends up with a Gold medal for an American.  You can witness the race with everyone else in the USA this evening in primetime.  It will air right after the McDonalds commercial that reminds you that they serve the breakfast of Olympians.

Tags: 2010 olympics, 2010 winter games, downhill skiing, julia mancuso, lindsey vonn

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.