KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - The U.S. ski team remained stuck on one alpine medal in the Sochi Olympics as European stars, as expected, dominated the women's super-G Saturday.
Austria's Anna Fenninger nailed a fast, seemingly error-free run down a treacherous course that claimed a number of the top skiers in the world as victims.
Fenninger roared down the super-G, a hybrid event that is between a downhill and a giant slalom in terms of speed and number of turns, in a time of 1 minute, 25.52 seconds. OLYMPICS: FTW: Sportsmanship at its finest A story of contrasting scenes
German superstar Maria Hoefl-Riesch took the silver medal, finishing 0.55 seconds behind Fenninger. And Austria's Nicole Hosp took the bronze, 0.11 seconds behind Hoefl-Riesch.
It was the second medal each in Sochi for Hoefl-Riesch and Hosp, who went 1-2 in the first women's race here, the super-combined.
The USA's Julia Mancuso, who took a bronze medal in the super-combined and was considered a medal contender in the super-G, finished eighth. SPEEDSKATING: FRICTION: Racing suits under fire U.S. official takes blame for suits
Stacey Cook and Laurenne Ross, two other U.S. hopefuls, were among 12 of the top 30 starters who failed to finish the course.
Another U.S. skier, Leanne Smith, who started second and was the lone finisher among the first eight, finished 18th. TWO OLYMPICS: SHUT OUT: Ted Ligety says he "choked" The mountain and the coast
In all, 18 of the 49 starters failed to finish the course. Most of the ones who blew off the course faltered in one of two trouble spots - the initial pitch that was steep with sharp turns, and the bottom pitch that consisted of several sharp turns after a high-speed jump.
Ross, starting seventh, was one of the skiers who carried too straight a line off the last jump and couldn't make the turns in the next section.
"You had to have the right direction coming off that jump because you're landing almost to the next gate," Ross said. "If you're too straight, there's no way to make that next section.
"I had a (radio) report that I needed to have some direction off the jump. But it was kind of unclear, because some of the girls had gone out in the top section, too. It was so tough running early like that."
But the top-seeded skiers took advantage of seeing what was happening. The medalists all came from the top-seeded start positions - Nos. 16 to 22. They were able to get better dialed in on the proper line.
Fenninger's run, in the No. 17 bib, was nearly perfect, fast enough to overtake Hosp for the lead and then hold off the pre-race favorites - Slovenia's Tina Maze, Switzerland's Lara Gut, Austria's Elisabeth Goergl and Hoefl-Riesch.
"I had a good run, but I must say the key to my run was the last section to the finish," Fenninger said. "I thank my coaches. They had a good report on the radio and gave us the right input."
Julia Mancuso of the USA said she skied conservatively and finished eighth.(Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY Sports)
Mancuso started just ahead of the top seeds, at No.14, and she'd seen a lot of carnage. At that point, only eight of 13 starters had made it to the finish line.
Mancuso's tactics drifted toward conservative.
"Watching so many people go down and have bad runs, it kind of took me back a notch in my confidence," Mancuso said. "I left the start wanting to ski well, not necessarily wanting to win. For sure in my mind I wanted to win, but I felt like with my skiing, when I got down to the bottom of the run, it was definitely conservative.
"On race day, you can't really care what everybody else is doing . . . In super-G, especially.
"You have to charge."
The alpine skiing schedule at the Olympics is halfway over, with the men's super-G scheduled for Sunday and then giant slaloms and slaloms next week.
At this point in Vancouver in 2010, the U.S. alpine skiers had six medals - on their way to a record total of eight. That included two by Lindsey Vonn, who is not skiing in these Olympics because of recent knee surgery, and two by Bode Miller, who is 36 and hasn't skied up to expectations in Russia.
And two by Mancuso, who is the only medalist so far in Sochi. PHOTOS: Women's alpine skiing
"There is definitely some disappointment," Mancuso said. "For sure in the downhill I wanted to have a better race (she was eighth). And Bode for sure wanted to do better. It's hard. There are really only three spots that you can get a medal. There are tons of skiers out here who can really step it up and have their best races.
"It just takes everything coming together. You can only believe so much and then you actually have to do it on the day. Every time I cross the finish line it makes me appreciate that I've been able to win medals. It feels so good to be on the podium. But everything has to come together. It has to be a magical day."
There are five races left. Sunday might be Miller's last chance at a medal, though he could contend in giant slalom as well. Ted Ligety will be the favorite in the giant slalom. And teen sensation Mikaela Shiffrin will be favored in the slalom and could also medal in giant slalom.
"I think there's a chance in every event left to have a medal," said Mancuso, who won a gold medal in giant slalom in 2006.
She said the U.S. team is not dispirited.
"Everyone is still looking at the big picture," she said. "The Olympics, although it seems so big, and we all have these amazing goals to do really well here, it's still just ski racing. And I think that everyone on our team is good at putting things in perspective and enjoying the journey. It's really amazing to be here and be part of the Olympics."
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