TORINO: Alpine: Austrians, led by Raich, sweep slalom medals

TORINO: Alpine: Austrians, led by Raich, sweep slalom medalsSESTRIERE, Italy – Austria put an emphatic exclamation point on a stellar Olympic Winter Games by sweeping the men’s slalom Saturday and affirming that it is indeed the dominant alpine nation on the planet.

With American contenders Bode Miller and Ted Ligety skiing out on the first run, Austrian Benni Raich won his second gold of the Games, with teammates Reinfried Herbst and Rainer Schoenfelder taking silver and bronze, respectively.

”I’m just very happy,” Raich said. ”It’s unbelievable for me to win two medals here. I was just focused on the second run. The course was tough. I think it’s a perfect moment for all the Austrian team. I can’t believe it.”

The Torino Games are Austria’s most successful Olympic alpine competition ever, with a record 14 alpine medals, three more than its old record from the 1998 Nagano Games.

The Austrians’ dominant performance came under floodlights after favorite Giorgio Rocca of Italy crashed and Ligety and Miller also were eliminated in a brutal first of the two runs.

“Normally it’s something I don’t do,” said Ligety. “In races I almost never straddle. … I almost never straddle in training either.”

Heavy favorite Giorgio Rocca of Italy and American Bode Miller also failed to finish. Miller avoided the media, as he has throughout the Games.

Earlier this week, in an interview with Ski Racing, Miller’s serviceman Robbie Kristan explained that Miller’s problems in slalom, were the fault of not having much time to train and perfect the equipment set-up.

“It’s the lack of training for slalom,” said Kristan. “It’s not possible to do it if you run all the races. It’s tough. The other guys are training slalom every week, every couple of days, at least, if not more. But they have time to do it.”

When it was over, Herbst and Schoenfelder hoisted Raich on their shoulders in celebration in the finish area.

“The course was very fast and there was a lot of rhythm change, so it was not easy to go down and to go down fast especially, and I think that was the problem,” Raich said.

It was the first time one nation swept the medals in an Olympic slalom race and only the fifth sweep in 122 alpine events. Austria has three of them.

”This is the greatest Olympics ever for us,” Austrian alpine director Hans Pum said.

Raich won with a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 43.14 seconds. He had the fastest times in both runs to add the slalom gold to the one he won in the giant slalom on Monday. Herbst was a distant .83 seconds behind and Schoenfelder 1.01 seconds back.

“I usually have the problem of not being able to sleep right away,” Herbst aid. “When I got up I had a relatively good feeling right away, and thought well, it’s a great thing to take part in the Olympics and just to be here. … I simply thought I’ll get up and get going and I’ll see what happens. I looked at the runs. I was not nervous at all … whatever I had today was just adding onto something that’s a good success anyway.”

Kalle Palander of Finland, second-fastest in the first run, appeared to have taken the lead but was disqualified for straddling a gate, the same fate that befell Ligety in the first run. Palander slammed one ski pole to the snow after realizing what had happened.

Miller said he enjoyed himself despite getting shut out of the medals. ”As far as my own personal involvement, I would not change anything. I had an awesome Olympics,” Miller told the AP. ”My preparation certainly could have been different, but I’m not a guy who looks back.”

Schoenfelder said, “I wasn’t happy about my first run, especially because I expected what happened. I had a lot of problems with my lenses. They did not keep on my eye. … Because there were so many guys between me and Benni, I didn’t expect to win a medal.”

Nine of the top 29 skiers in the competition could not even finish the first run because they either crashed or straddled a gate.

”I thought today would be my day to shine,” Ligety said, ”but it didn’t work out that way.”

He made it to the bottom in what would have been a medal-contending time — only to be disqualified for straddling a gate early on the course.

”Part of it was the snow was slicker than we expected and part of it was Olympic jitters — guys are going for it,” Ligety said. ”I still have one gold, so I’m not mad.”

Jimmy Cochran raced to a 12th-place finish to lead the U.S. effort. Cochran posted a combined time of 1:45.68 to finish 2.54 seconds behind Raich. Chip Knight finished in 18th place with a time of 1:46.26.
___

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

XX Winter Olympics

Men’s slalom
Sestriere, Italy
Feb. 25, 2006
1. Benjamin Raich, AUT 1:43.14
2. Reinfried Herbst, AUT 1:43.97
3. Rainer Schoenfelder, AUT 1:44.15
4. Kentaro Minagawa, JPN 1:44.18
4. Andre Myhrer, SWE 1:44.18
6. Ivica Kostelic, CRO 1:44.45
7. Naoki Yuasa, JPN 1:44.57
8. Johan Brolenius, SWE 1:44.81
9. Thomas Grandi, CAN 1:44.84
10. Martin Hansson, SWE 1:45.24
11. Pierrick Bourgeat, FRA 1:45.;48
12. James Cochran, USA 1:45.68
13. Drago Grubelnik, SLO 1:45.69
14. Marc Berthod, SUI 1:46.00
15. Silvan Zurbriggen, SUI 1:46.10
16. Alain Baxter, GBR 1:46.15
17. Michael Janyk, CAN 1:46.19
18. Chip Knight, USA 1:46.26
19. Bernard Vajdic, SLO 1:46.43
20. Noel Baxter, GBR 1:47.22
21. Martin Vrablik, CZE 1:47.40
22. Bjoergvin Bjoergvinsson, ISL 1:51.23
23. Vassilis Dimitriadis, GRE 1:51.38
24. Jaroslav Babusiak, SVK 1:52.06
25. Stefan Georgiev, BUL 1:52.55
26. Ivan Heimschild, SVK 1:53.98
27. Roger Vidosa, AND 1:54.03
28. Kristjan Uni Oskarsson, ISL 1:54.70
29. Anton Konovalov, RUS 1:54.71
30. Marco Schaefferer, BIH 1:57.17
31. Mickey Ross, NZE 1:57.80
32. Iason Abramashvili, GEO 1:58.67
33. Natko Zrncic-Dim, CRO 1:59.03
34. Olivier Jenot, MON 1:59.13
35. Kristinn Ingi Valsson, ISL 1:59.80
36. Nikolay Skriabin, UKR 1:59.96
37. Mikail Renzhin, ISR 2:00.73
38. Theodoros Christodoulou, CYP 2:06.55
39. Hannes Paul Schmid, ITA 2:08.63
40. Hamit Sare, TUR 2:09.13
41. Alidad Saveh Shemshaki, RUM 2:09.56
42. Attila Marosi, HUN 2:10.28
43. George Salameh, LIB 2:11.61
44. Vitalij Rumiancev, LTU 2:13.46
45. Abraham Sarkakhyan, ARM 2:16.21
46. Kayrat Ermetov, UZB 2:20.88
47. Yasuhiro Ikuta, JPN 2:23.28
Other skiers:
DNS: Jean-Pierre Vidal, FRA; Ondrej Bank, CZE; Pavel Chestakov, RUS; Deyvid Oprja, EST
DNF 1st Markus Larsson, SWE; Alois Vogl, GER; Stephane Tissot, FRA; Bode Miller, USA; Mario Matt, AUT; Hans-Petter Buraas, Lars Myhre, NOR; Jean-Philippe Roy, CAN; Jonothan Brauer, AUS; Mitja Valencic, Ales Gorza, SLO; James Leuzinger, GBR; Cristan Simari Birkner, ARG; Jukka Rajala, FIN; Dmitrij Ulianov, Alexandr Horoshilov, RUS; Dalibor Samsal, Danko Marinelli, CRO; Krystof Kryzl, CZE; Mihail Sediankov, BUL; Alex Antor, AND; Sindri M Palsson, ISL; Alexander Heath, RSA; Victor Ryabchenko, KAZ; Leyti Seck, SEN; Mathieu Razanakolona, MAD; Erjon Tola, ALB.
DSQ 1st: Ted Ligety, USA.
DNF 2nd: Akira Sasaki, JPN; Aksel Luns Svindal, NOR; Daniel Albrecht, SUI; Felix Neureuther, GER; Patrick Biggs, CAN; Jean-Baptiste Grange, FRA; Filip Trejbal, CZE; Michal Kalwa, POL; Dean Todorov, BUL; Gjorgi Markovski, MKD; Li Guangxu, CHN.
DSQ 2nd: Kalle Palander, FIN; Min Heuk Kang, KOR; Zelimir Vukovic, SCG; Ivan Borisov, KGZ.

Equipment
Men’s Slalom, Sestriere, Feb. 25, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1. Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2. Herbst, Blizzard/Lange/
Tyrolia
3. Schoenfelder, Fischer/Rexamm/Fischer
4. Minagawa, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4. Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/
6. Kostelic, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7. Yuasa, Hart/Dolomite/Look
8. Brolenius, Head/Nordica/Tyrolia
9. Grandi, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10. Hansson, Dynastar/Lange/Look

XX Winter Olympics, men’s slalom, Sestriere, Italy, Feb. 25, 2006. … It is the seventh win of the season for Benjamin Raich. … His first in slalom. … It is his second gold medal of these Olympics. … It is his fourth career Olympic medal (he previously earned gold in GS Feb. 20, and bronze medals in CMB and SL at Salt Lake City in 2002). … He also has six World Championships medals (including a team medal) for a total of 10. … It is the first Austrian gold medal in slalom since Petra Kronberger in ’92 and the first for a male since Josef ‘Pepi’ Stiegler in ’64. … It is the first slalom Raich has won since winning the World Championships in the discipline in 2005.

It is the second career podium result for Reinfried Herbst after a second at Kitzbuehel in slalom Jan. 22 earlier this season. …That result earned him the Olympic start. … It is his first Olympic medal and first Olympic result. … He had been fourth after the first run.

It is the fifth podium of the season for Rainer Schoenfelder and second of the Olympic Games. … He had been second in World Cup combineds at Val d’Isere and Chamonix and third in GS at Soelden. … He also earned a bronze medal in combined Feb. 14. … Schoenfelder also earned a silver in slalom at the 2005 World Championships.

These are the 98th, 99th and 100th Olympic medals in alpine skiing for Austria. … And the 12th, 13th and 14th of the XX Winter Olympics. … That breaks the record of 11 Austria (Nagano ’98) had shared with Switzerland (Calgary ’88). … It is the fourth podium sweep of the season for the Austrians after the women’s SG at Lake Louise Dec. 4, the men’s DH at Val d’Isere Dec. 10 and the men’s DH at Garmisch Jan. 28. … It is the third Olympic medal sweep in Austrian history after the men’s GS of ’56 and the women’s DH of ’64.

It is the eighth top 10 of the season for Thomas Grandi, and second of the Olympics, having also placed 10th in GS. … It is the second-best result of the season for James Cochran, after a seventh in GS at Kranjaka Gora Dec. 21. … It is his first Olympic result. … It is the fourth-best result of the season for Michael Janyk, all in slalom. … It is his first Olympic result. … The result ties the second best of the season for Chip Knight after a 17th in slalom at Adelboden. … It is his second-best Olympic result after placing 11th in slalom at Salt Lake City in 2002.

AUT earned 14 medals, CRO earned three, FIN one, NOR one, SUI three, SWE four and USA two.

Winning margin was .83. … Top two were within the same second. … top nine within two seconds.