Hot American Lindsey Vonn Wins Gold

There were some brave faces through the tears, even a few smiles and quiet acknowledgement that skiing in an Olympics at home was something special.

But it was also painfully obvious on Wednesday, on a very tough, physically-taxing downhill for women, that the Canadian Speed Queens just weren’t women enough to catch America’s fastest bikini-model-not-named-Danica Patrick.

Britt Janyk, the bubbly Whistler girl who many believed could take advantage of her intimate knowledge of Franz’s Run, was sixth-best on Monday behind the dominant Lindsey Vonn, the NBC heroine and Sports Illustrated pin-up.

Now sixth might seem respectable in terms of a placing, but her time of one minute, 46.21 seconds was still a stunning 2.02 seconds behind Vonn. For comparison sake, there were 27 men within two seconds of winner Didier Defago’s time in Monday’s men’s downhill.

“The crowd just gave me an absolutely amazing feeling,” said Janyk, who was fourth in the World Cup downhill at Whistler in February, 2008.

“I would have loved to have been sitting on the podium . . . I know I’m right there in the mix.”

But in reality, she was no match for the incomporable Vonn.

Janyk, 29, was solid on the top part of the technically difficult course, but lost considerable time in the middle section.

“I really tried to pin it and go for it, but unfortunately I got a little bit low [in a couple of spots] and that was kind of your speed for the bottom section. It was a little bit bumpy and you really had to fight to the finish.”

Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., a 30-year-old with one win and a handful of podium finishes in her career, seemed poised earlier this season to be a Vonn challenger when she was second and third behind the American at the first two opening World Cups of the season at Lake Louise, Alta. But for the often emotionally fragile Brydon those best-ever results in Alberta seemed to a pinnacle rather than a springboard.

On Wednesday, Brydon, who said the track was the “most exhausting female course out there,” could do no better than 16th in 1:47.88.

“What was missing today? I don’t know,” said a red-eyed Brydon, who wondered aloud if the pressure and expectation had led her to try a little too hard.

“I gave it my best. I couldn’t have worked any harder. I couldn’t have been more prepared. I couldn’t have had better coaches or support staff around me.

“I just don’t think it was my day. I didn’t ski the course well. It was driver errror. I let this course ski me instead of me skiing it. On a difficult challenging course, you need to be on it and have that confidence start to finish. Each little bobble I had just compounded the defensiveness.”

Brydon, who plans to retire after this season, was emotional in talking about her commitment.

“You put a lot of heart and a lot of soul into it, so yeah, there were tears.”

Shona Rubens of Calgary was 21st, 4.34 seconds back of Vonn, despite starting 37th.

“It was definitely tough mentally with all the delays [due to crashes.]

Georgia Simmerling, a 20-year-old out of West Vancouver, did not start, almost certainly pulled by coaches after there were a handful of wild crashes before she was to ski.

As perplexed and as defeated as she sounded Wednesday, Brydon will race today’s super combined, one run on a shortened downhill course and another of slalom.

“I’m going to redeem myself on that course tomorrow, I’m going to rip it up.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Lindsey+Vonn+delivers+with+gold+Olympic+women+downhill/2577317/story.html