Americans get first medal with super-G bronze

BEAVER CREEK — While it wasn’t the race that everyone hoped for, the women’s super-G got the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships rolling for the Americans with a medal on the board.

Lindsey Vonn took the bronze, trailing closely behind second-place Tina Maze and winner Anna Fenninger. Teammate Julia Mancuso came in ninth, 1.65 seconds behind the winner, and Americans Stacey Cook and Laurenne Ross had respectable finishes coming in 13th and 15th, respectively.

Vonn told reporters she was “very happy with a bronze,” but expressed some regret about a slow start and high headwinds at the top part of the course. She put down the fastest time on the last half of the course, but it wasn’t enough to fend off Maze and Fenninger.

Still, the Americans enjoyed the home-course advantage, and packed crowds at Redtail Stadium brought each American racer through the finish with loud cheers.

Mancuso said she was pleased with her top-10 finish, pumping her fists and twirling her poles at the finish, saying that to win on the Beaver Creek super-G course took a very special run.

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“I felt good about my skiing and the run. I wasn’t ever thinking I should have done something different. There were unfortunate mistakes, but that happens in ski racing. I was especially excited to make it to the finish line with such an awesome crowd cheering,” she said.

Stacey Cook said the challenge of the course was maintaining speed on the technical course.

“This course can catch you off guard at every gate. It was really hard to maintain through the whole thing. It was who could make the least mistakes,” she said.

Ross rounded out the American finishers in 15th, about 2 seconds behind the winner. She said that snow conditions near the top of the course were tough and attributed to a few ragged turns.

“It was definitely a little bumpy up there. I don’t know if it was bumpy for everyone, or if it was just bumpy by the time I went, but I definitely felt like I was getting rattled around a little bit,” she said.

Assistant Managing Editor Melanie Wong can be reached at 970-748-2927 or at mwong@vaildaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @mwongvail.