Germany wins team gold medal
February 13th, 2005
BORMIO, Italy (Feb. 13) - Germany was the surprise gold medalist Sunday for its first medal as the World Alpine Ski Championships ended with the inaugural team event. Austria took second and the U.S. Ski Team finished fourth, one point behind France, which also had no medals until the final day of the Championships.
NBC will televise Worlds coverage today at 1 p.m. ET.
"In team events, it's all about finishing. You need consistency and you need to finish," explained U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. We had a strong team across the board, good strength overall, but part of the fun also is these guys want to show what they can do, not just finish.
"One of the tricks," Hunt said, "is to back down without losing your timing. That's very tricky."
The team event was an eight-run competition - four in super G and four in slalom. Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) and Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA) posted the fastest time on their super G legs but the U.S. women - Lindsey Kildow (Vail, CO) and Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) - skied off-course. In slalom, Miller straddled a gate and was disqualified while Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) was third. Mancuso and Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO).
"We came out of the [four runs of] super G," Hunt explained, "and had to claw our way back into it. Sarah gave us a great slalom run, finishing second and then Bode was trying to win and that cost us. Julia came back solid and Ted really let it go...and with what other teams were doing, all of a sudden it came down to those last runs. Ted put 'em in a position where they had to come through, and France did it."
"It was definitely a fun day but DNFs [Did Not Finish] killed us," said Ligety. "It's kind of a bummer - another five-hundredths of a second faster and we'd've gotten the bronze...pretty close but..."
Schleper added, "It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I was part of it. It's really fun - and really different - to cheer for your teammates in a team situation, not a regular individual race. ...It was a hard battle between pushing it and standing up. I did a little of both..."
The World Cup resumes this week with the men racing two downhills and a super G in Garmisch, Partenkirchen, Germany, while the women head to Are, Sweden - host of the 2007 World Championships - for a super G and giant slalom. Miller, who won the downhill and super G gold medals in Bormio, leads Austrian Benjamin Raich by 95 points in the overall standings with 11 races remaining.
