TORINO: Alpine: Raich wins GS as Bourque falters; Miller finishes 6th

TORINO: Alpine: Raich wins GS as Bourque falters; Miller finishes 6thSESTRIERE, Italy – Bode Miller’s valiant effort in the second run was nearly enough for a podium, but the man who is destined to replace him as the World Cup overall champion, Austrian Benni Raich, earned the glory Monday.

‘He is a very nice person’ said Raich’s girlfriend, Marlies Schild, a standout on the Austrian women’s team. ‘He is not flying so high like others that have lots of success, and I like him very much. He’s very humble.”

Raich, the World Cup GS champion from last season, won the first Olympic gold medal of his career, capturing the men’s GS at the Torino Winter Games. Click here for a photo gallery.

“I think he can’t recognize now what happened because he is so happy,” said Schild.

France’s Joel Chenal was the surprise silver medalist and Austria’s Hermann Maier picked up his second medal of the Games with bronze.

Miller escaped the finish area without talking to scores of American reporters, leaving coaches and team spokesmen to face hard questions about the U.S. Ski Team’s undeniable implosion.

Miller said he hit a rock on course in the first run. Coaches confirmed that the edge on Miller’s ski was rolled back from his foot to the tail, a part of the ski he relies on heavily. FIS race referee Guenter Hujara denied there were any rocks on the course, saying Miller’s ski damage was likely caused by a piece of hard ice.

Kalle Palander of Finland also reported ski damage, but said it was on his outside edge.

Raich, winner of the last two giant slaloms before Torino, topped the field with a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 35 seconds, .07 ahead of Chenal and .16 ahead of Maier.

“I am speechless, overjoyed. This makes me extremely happy,” said Raich, who isn’t just a boring guy. “The Olympic victory was my greatest goal.”

Raich took bronze in combined and slalom at the Salt Lake Games, and was fourth in GS. At Torino, he was poised to win the men’s combined but skied off-course on the final leg of slalom, allowing American Ted Ligety to seize gold. Raich was 21st in the super G Saturday.

”The failure in the combination and in the super G did not affect me in any way, because I do not have to prove to anybody anymore that I know ski racing,” he said after winning Monday.

The second run delivered heartbreak to Canada’s Francois Bourque, the first-run leader, who struggled a bit in the second run and finished off the podium in fourth.

Canadian racers have now been fourth three times at these Games, with Erik Guay finishing fourth in men’s super G and Kelly Vanderbeek finishing fourth in women’s super G.

Sweden’s Fredrik Nyberg was fifth while Miller moved up six spots from 12th after the first run to tie with Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal for sixth.

But as a group, the American alpine men continued to underperform. Erik Schlopy moved up four spots to finish 13th, while Daron Rahlves and Ligety did not finish the first run.

Miller, GS silver medalist at the Salt Lake Games, was 12th in the first run but scorched the course in the second run, standing atop the leader board for a handful of racers until Svindal moved into a tie with him.

Between runs, Miller’s service man Robbie Kristan attempted to repair the edge so Miller could use the skis for the second run, which was set by American coach Mike Morin.

Miller spent exactly 11 minutes inspecting the second run of the course. He has failed to medal in all four Olympic races so far.

”One of the good things about my career is I have such extensive knowledge, so I always go as hard as I can,” Miller told the AP. ”Some guys can go 70 to 80 percent and get results, but I wouldn’t do that.

”If things went well, I could be sitting on four medals, maybe all of them gold.”

Chenal, 23rd in the 2002 Games’ GS, has four World Cup podiums — all in GS — and one win, but that came on Dec. 19, 1999, in Alta Badia. This is his first Olympic medal. In January, the French technical coach, Severino Bottero, was killed in an automobile accident in the Italian Alps. The French GS team raced at Adelboden the weekend following the tragedy, wearing black armbands in memory of their coach. Chenal finished eighth in that race.

After taking silver Monday, Chenal, 32, said, ”It has been a little while since I have been in such a position. Benni was just too fast today.”

Maier, who won the super G and giant slalom in 1998 at the Nagano Games, missed the last Olympics in Salt Lake City after breaking both legs in a motorcycle accident.

”Today I felt in good shape,” said Maier, who was recovering from the flu. ”I’m very satisfied with my result.”

For Maier, the Olympics did not start so well, with some doping-control shenanigans drawing his ire. But he rebounded to take silver in the super G and bronze Monday.

Raich was fifth in the first run, while Bourque set the pace and was primed to collect Canada’s 11th alpine medal at the Olympics, and first since Edi Podivinsky won downhill bronze in Lillehammer. But he lost time right from the get-go of the second run. It was a crushing setback for Canada, which less than an hour later saw Kelly Vanderbeek finish a tantalizing fourth in the women’s super G, won by Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister.

Ligety, who won gold in the combined last week, and Rahlves were among 34 racers that did not finish their first runs.

“It’s very hard to swallow, knowing this is the last time I’ll be in an event like this,” said Rahlves, 32, who is competing in his third Olympics. “Overall, I think it’s been a great year for me, but it just didn’t happen here. It’s disappointing to be at three Olympics and not have a medal.”

Rahlves, who has three wins and six podiums on the World Cup circuit this season, placed ninth in the super G and 10th in the downhill at these Olympics.

“This is the Olympics, the whole world’s watching,” said Rahlves. “I had a chance to showcase our sport and I feel like I didn’t step up.”

Ligety, an Olympic rookie, owns one of four gold medals won by U.S. skiers and snowboarders at the Torino Games.

“My GS is not that strong yet that I can afford to be so aggressive,” said Ligety. “I just went too direct and went out. It’s definitely difficult conditions for sure. It’s not an easy race today.”

The first run was originally scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m., but was postponed for an hour so course crews could finish preparing as heavy snow on Sunday left plenty of powder on the course.

The final men’s alpine event of the Olympics is the slalom, which is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 in Sestriere.
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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

XX Winter Olympics

Men’s giant slalom
Sestriere, Italy
Feb. 20, 2006
1. Benjamin Raich, AUT 2:35.00
2. Joel Chenal, FRA 2:35.07
3. Hermann Maier, AUT 2:35.16
4. Francois Bourque, CAN 2:35.92
5. Fredrik Nyberg, SWE 2:36.05
6. Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR 2:36.06
6. Bode Miller, USA 2:36.06
8. Rainer Schoenfelder, AUT 2:36.64
9. Kalle Palander, FIN 2:36.82
10. Thomas Grandi, CAN 2:36.88
11. Massimiliano Blardone, ITA 2:36.95
12. Mitja Valencic, SLO
2:37.39
13. Erik Schlopy, USA 2:37.56
14. Didier Defago, SUI 2:37.60
15. Alberto Schieppati, ITA 2:37.83
16. Ondrej Bank, CZE 2:37.85
17. Marc Berthod, SUI 2:38.25
18. Lasse Kjus, NOR 2:39.31
19. Didier Cuche, SUI 2:39.33
20. Bjarne Solbakken, NOR 2:39.61
21. Raphael Burtin, FRA 2:40.99
22. Jukka Rajala, FIN 2:41.40
23. Cristian Simari Birkner, ARG 2:42.56
24. Daisuke Yoshioka, JPN 2:45.03
25. Natko Zrncic-Dim, CRO 2:45.59
26. Nikolay Skriabin, UKR 2:50.85
27. Alexander Heath, RSA 2:51.42
28. Hyung Chul Kim, KOR 2:52.46
29. Iason Abramashvili, GEO 2:54.86
30. Nikolai Hentscdh, BRA 2:55.56
31. Thomas Foley, IRE 2:57.42
32. Mikail Renzhin, ISR 3:00.41
33. Victor Ryabchenko, KAZ 3:00.66
34. Theodoros Christodoulou, CYP 3:02.03
35. Erjon Tola, ALB 3:02.89
36. Alidad Saveh Shemshaki, IRI 3:03.88
37. Marco Schafferer, BIH 3:04.46
38. Attila Marosi, HUN 3:05.12
39. Mathieu Razanakolona, MAD 3:06.43
40. Li Guangxu, CHN 3:08.07
41. Ivan Borisov, ITA 3:37.10

THE SCOOP

Equipment:
Men’s GS, Sestriere, Feb. 20, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1. Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2. Chenal, Dynastar/Lange/Look
3. Maier, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4. Bourque, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5. Nyberg, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
6. Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6. Miller, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8. Schoenfelder, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
9. Palander, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10. Grandi, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

Men’s giant slalom, XX Winter Olympics, Sestriere, Italy, Feb. 20, 2006. … It is the sixth win of the season for Benjamin Raich. … His third in GS, having also won World Cup GS’s at Kranjska Gora Dec. 21 and Adelboden Jan. 7. … It is his third Olympic medal, having previously won bronze medals in combined and SL at Salt Lake City. … He had been fourth in GS at SLC. … Previously in these Olympics he had finished 21st in SG and been a DNF in the second run of combined slalom. … It is the first event of the XX Winter Olympic in which Austria has won two medals. … They are the sixth and seventh medals of the Games for Austria. … And the 92nd and 93rd Olympic medals all time for Austria. … It was the longest GS in terms of time of the season.

It was the first podium of the season for Joel Chenal in five completed GS’s. … His previous best this season had been eighth at Adelboden. … It is the 43rd Olympic medal for France. … The second medal of these Games after Antoine Deneriaz won the downhill gold Feb. 12. … The last Olympic medal in GS for France was from Perrine Pelen in 1984 at Sarajevo. … The last Olympic medal in GS by a French male was Jean-Claude Killy’s gold at Grenoble Feb. 12, 1968. … The French men lost GS coach Severino Bottero when he was killed in a car accident Jan. 2.

It was the fifth podium result of the season for Hermann Maier and second in GS after winning the World Cup opener at Soelden Oct. 23. … It is his second medal of these Olympics after winning silver in SG Feb. 18. … It is his fourth Olympic medal in six completed races and his second in GS, having won gold at Nagano Feb. 19, 1998.

It is the second-best result of the season for Francois Bourque after a third-place result in the Alta Badia World Cup GS. … It is his fourth Olympic result, having also placed 16th in DH, 21st in CMB and eighth in SG. … It is the second Canadian fourth-place result of these Games, after Erik Guay finished fourth in SG Feb. 18. … It is the best Canadian Olympic GS result since Kathy Kreiner won the gold medal at Innsbruck Feb. 13, 1976. … And the best ever for a Canadian male in GS…. It is the ninth-best result of the season for Bode Miller. … Third-best in GS after winning at Beaver Creek Dec. 3 and placing second at Soelden Oct. 23. … Miller won silver in the event in the 2002 Olympics. … It is the seventhbest result of the season for Thomas Grandi. … His third-best in GS, having placed third in the Kranjska Gora World Cup GS Dec. 21 and sixth at Adelboden. … It is his best Olympic GS result, having placed 16th at Lillehammer Feb. 23, 1994 and 12th at Salt Lake City Feb. 21, 2002. … It is the third-best result of the season for Erik Schlopy. … And matches his best Olympic result, from slalom at Salt Lake City Feb. 23, 2002.

It is the fourth Olympic gold medal in GS for Austria … And third in a row… Maier won at Nagano ’98; Eberharter at SLC (Park City) in 2002. … Winning margin was seven-hundredths. … Top four skiers were within the same second. … Top 11 within two seconds. … Top 16 within three.