TORINO: Alpine: Janica Kostelic wins women's combined

TORINO: Alpine: Janica Kostelic wins women’s combinedSESTRIERE, Italy – Janica Kostelic won an Olympic medal again, and of course it was gold. A record gold.

The 24-year-old Croatian on Saturday became the first woman to win four Olympic alpine gold medals when she fought off illness and beat her main rival to defend her championship in the combined event.

Her five Olympic medals overall — she also has one silver — tied Kostelic for the most by a woman in alpine skiing with Swiss great Vreni Schneider and Germany’s Katja Seizinger. Kostelic is entered in three more medal races these Games.

Kostelic’s total time between the downhill and two slalom runs Friday night was 2 minutes, 51.08 seconds, beating Austrian Marlies Schild by a half-second and leaving rival Anja Paerson of Sweden in third.

Kostelic made the course look easy, starting the downhill ranked second coming out of yesterday’s slalom. Kostelic came out strong after being sidelined for medical reasons earlier in the week. ‘I was shaking at the beginning’ she told reporters. ‘It felt like a long time to the finish line. I was waiting and I wasn’t sure if I was first.’

A soft, slow course emerged from the clouds after multiple delays. The downhill was originally scheduled for Friday morning, but delayed for wind after one racer. That skier, Nika Fleiss of Croatia, did not start in today’s race.

“It was a long day to wait,” said Paerson. “It was hard to find the speed that I lost in the slalom. Today was a different race from the downhill competition on Wednesday. I think I’m going to do better in the super G tomorrow.”

Schild said, “It was better for me that the downhill was after the slalom. The race today was OK even though at one point I thought I’m skiing out of the lane. I’m really happy today because I finished second behind Janica and usually I am two seconds from Anja and Janica.”

Kostelic’s medal was the second for her family these Games. Her brother, Ivica, won silver in the men’s alpine combined — marking the first time since 1980 in Lake Placid that a brother and sister have won medals at the same Olympics.

Paerson won her second Olympic bronze in the Italian Alps — she took third in the downhill.

“I wanted to come here to be Olympic champion, but today I lost one of my opportunities,” said Paerson, who felt Saturday’s course was too easy and benefited slalom specialists.

Paerson was the leader before Kostelic’s run. As the Croatian crossed the finish line and swung her arms in joy, the Swede looked despondently at the ground.

Schild was the next skier down. When she finished, in second, Kostelic embraced her and then jumped for joy with both hands in the air before dropping to a knee in exhaustion. Paerson and Kostelic didn’t acknowledge each other for several minutes.

Julia Mancuso was the top U.S. finisher, but her ninth place was a disappointment as she failed to make up as much ground in the downhill as she had expected. Resi Stiegler was 11th and Kaylin Richardson 17th. The fourth U.S. woman, Lindsey Kildow, failed to finish the second slalom on Friday.

Richardson is finished competing in these Winter Games. ‘It was a little bittersweet’ said Richardson, ‘I’ve been looking forward to this my whole life.’
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

XX Winter Olympic Games

Women’s combined
San Sicario, Italy
Feb. 1718, 2006
1. Janica Kostelic, CRO 2:51.08
2. Marlies Schild, AUT 2:51.58
3. Anja Paerson, SWE 2:51.63
4. Kathrin Zettel, AUT 2:52.41
5. Nicole Hosp, AUT 2:53.21
6. Michaela Kirchgasser, AUT 2:53.48
7. Martina Ertl-Renz, GER 2:54.28
8. Jessica Lindell-Vikarby, SWE 2:55.19
9. Julia Mancuso, USA 2:55.44
10. Brigitte Acton, CAN 2:55.75
11. Resi Stiegler, USA 2:55.79
12. Janette Hargin, SWE 2:56.13
13. Emily Brydon, CAN 2:56.51
14. Nike Bent, SWE 2:56.62
15. Veronika Zuzulova, SVK 2:56.63
16. Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer, GER 2:56.80
17. Kaylin Richardson, USA 2:56.83
18. Marie Marchand-Arvier, FRA 2:57.11
19. Sarka Zahrobska, CZE 2:57.14
20. Nadia Fanchini, ITA 2:57.15
21. Petra Robnik, SLO 2:57.;40
22. Lucie Hrstkova, CZE 2:59.57
23. Sona Maculova, SVK 3:00.25
24. Petra Zakourilova, CZE 3:00.77
25. Carolina Ruiz Castillo, SPA 3:00.93
26. Marcarena Simari Birkner, FIN 3:02.66
27. Wendy Siorpaes, ITA 3:02.85
28. Dagny Kristjandottir, ISL 3:04.25
29. Maria Belen Simari Birkner, ARG 3:05.35
30. Noelle Barahona, CHI 3:26.62

THE SCOOP

Equipment
Olympic women’s combined, San Sicario, Feb. 17-18, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1. Kostelic, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
2. Schild, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3. Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4. Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5. Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
6. Kirchgasser, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7. Ertl-Renz, Rossignol/Nordica/Rossignol
8. Lindell-Vikarby, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9. Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
10. Acton, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

XX Winter Olympics, women’s combined
It is the fifth of 10 events on the Olympic alpine schedule. … The second of five women’s events.

It is the 27th scoring result of the season for Janica Kostelic. … Her sixth win. … Second in combined. … It is her fifth Olympic medal, tying her with Vreni Schneider for the women’s record. … It is her fourth Olympic gold medal, tying her with Kjetil Andre Ammodt for the all-time record (he collected his fourth gold earlier in the day). … It is the sixth Olympic alpine medal for Croatia. … And second of these Games after Janica’s brother, Ivica, earned silver in the men’s combined four days ago. … It is her third straight Olympic gold medal (also won GS and SL in 2002) and her second straight Olympic gold in combined. … She has medaled in five straight Olympic races she declined to race the opening DH in 2006.

It is the seventh podium placing of the season for Marlies Schild. … Her first Olympic result and medal. … It is the 91st Olympic alpine medal for Austria. … the fifth of these Games. … And the third silver of these Games.

It is the 12th podium of the season for Anja Paerson. … Her second of the Games. … It is her fourth Olympic medal in four Olympic starts. … It is the 12th alpine Olympic medal for Sweden. … Paerson passes Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg, who each recorded three for Sweden, on the all-time Swedish medal list.

Ninth matches the eighth-best result of the season for Julia Mancuso. … Her second-best of the Olympics after seventh in the DH. … It is her third Olympic result, having also placed 13th in CMB in 2002. … It is the best result of the season for Brigitte Acton, her first CMB result. … It is her first Olympic result. … It is the second-best result of the season, and best in CMB for Resi Stiegler. … It is her first Olympic result. … Thirteenth matches Emily Brydon’s third-best result of the season, and best in CMB by one placing. … It is her best Olympic result of four. … It is her second result of these Games, the previous 20th in DH. … Seventeenth matches Kaylin Richardson’s best result of the season. … It is her first Olympic result. … Shona Rubens of Canada was a DNF in the first run of slalom. … Lindsey Kildow was a second-run SL DNF.

Winning margin was a half a second (.50). … Top three were within the same second. … Top four skiers within two seconds.