TORINO: Alpine: Dorfmeister's run serves as a blueprint for her proud nation

TORINO: Alpine: Dorfmeister’s run serves as a blueprint for her proud nation{mosimage}It is no secret the Austrians have long been the dominant nation in alpine skiing. A quarter of all Olympic alpine medals have gone to Austrians.

In downhill, the crown jewel in the list of alpine disciplines, the country is even more potent, winning a full third of the medals.

On the World Cup stage — an all winter, every year set of competitions – the percentage of downhill wins is actually higher, about 39 percent, for Austria. This season, the percent of Austrian World Cup wins is over 40 percent.

Yet, until Michaela Dorfmeister claimed the Olympic downhill win Feb. 15 at San Sicario, Italy, no Austrian woman had won the Olympic gold medal in the crown event of the alpine schedule since Annemarie Moser-Proell in 1980 at Lake Placid.

A Frenchwoman had won Olympic gold, a Swiss, a couple of Germans (both before and after the wall came down), and a Canadian, but not an Austrian, not in 26 years.

Dorfmeister – reported to be, at 32, the oldest woman to ever win an Olympic downhill — was 6 years old when Moser-Proell won at Lake Placid. No Austrian woman had won in Dorfmeister’s adult life.

It is unlikely, looking at the continuous stream of young women coming into the Austrian program, such a medal drought will every strike this proud nation again. Eight of the top 13 women on the World Cup overall standings at this moment are Austrian. Five of them are 24 or younger. That takes care of the immediate future. The next generation after them will have a gold medalist they can look to for inspiration.

They could scarcely get a better example. The downhill run Dorfmeister put down at these Games was masterful. She flat-out was better. No luck involved, no wind at her back, no magic wax and no help from official rulings. She was solid and aggressive and she made no mistakes. Just what might be expected from a veteran skier.

Expectations can be heady stuff, though. There have been plenty of Austrian women who went to their Olympics as favorites. Dorfmeister, herself, had been highly regarded going into Nagano in 1998, and Salt Lake 2002. Delivering on expectations is another matter particularly, it would seem, at the Winter Games.

After 14 seasons with World Cup results, after scoring in exactly 100 World Cup downhill races, Dorfmeister simply trusted her skill. Her run was one coaches can hold up for youngsters to study. Dorfmeister came through.

Another generation of Austrian girls now have a gold medal they can aspire to; And a blueprint to get there.