Still, bronze at the Olympics is pretty darn good, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.  Andrea Fischbacher from Austria won gold with a time of 1:20.14. Tina Maze of Slovenia was the surprise silver medallist; she’s never won a Super G world cup race.  She is, however, the highest medal winner for Slovenia, ever.  The best has always been bronze up until now.  So congrats to Maze for setting the bar a notch higher!

The first surprise of the day was Andrew Weibrecht setting the pace for the rest of the skiers.  At first, it looked like Weibrecht made a serious bobble on the “coaches corner” but he recovered swiftly enough to time in at 1:30.65.  Italy’s Fills looked like he might beat Weibrecht, but fell just feet from the finish.  I’m sure he was disappointed, but he jumped right up and grinned at his mistake.

Bode Miller made an interesting choice and used his downhill skis instead of his shorter, super g skis. The longer skis increase speed, but are harder to turn. It turned out to be a good move, as Miller beat his teammate by .03 seconds

But no one was going to top Aksel Svindal of Norway.  Svindal had a massive crash at Beaver Creek 2 years ago that would have ended anyone else’s career, but apparently, he grew stronger.  He fearlessly barreled down the course, made tougher by rising temperatures that softened the snow near the bottom.   He shaved down Miller’s time by .28 seconds and won gold.

Final standings put Bode Miller at silver and Andrew Weibrecht at bronze. Miller chuckled when it was pointed out that he is now the most decorated US skier, saying it wouldn’t last long, that the ladies still had to ski again. Nice nod to the gals, Bode!

There was a tense moment when Patrick Jarbyn of Sweden fell badly and looked like he was knocked out, but reports say he has only a concussion and some face abrasions. Thank heaven!

Downhill is the longest, fastest race. There is a path that skiers need to stay on, but it doesn’t require the precision of slalom. Speeds reach about 90 mph.

Slalom is a relatively short race. It features sharp turns around flags, requiring speed and agility. This is a two-run race. Many skiers get disqualified by missing gates.

Giant slalom is a longer version of slalom. The turns are not quite as tight. This is also a two-run race.

Super G (short for super giant slalom) is a longer, faster version of Giant slalom. It’s a relatively new Olympic event, debuting in 1988. There are no training runs on Super G.

Re-introduced in 1988, Super Combined combines one downhill race with one slalom run. The fastest combined time wins.

You can find out more about Lindsey and keep up with her on her website.

Update: We are happy to report that Lindsey’s arm is just badly bruised, and it looks like her Olympic hopes are alive and well.