[Svrluga: Vonn, in class of her own, is skiing for more than herself]
That mark put her 0.38 seconds ahead of Vonn and just 0.01 ahead of silver medalist Anna Veith of Austria. Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather took bronze, finishing 0.11 seconds off the lead. By then, Vonn’s super-G fate had already been sealed. She tore through the top half of the course, but with the finish line almost in sight, she struggled on one of her final turns, skiing off her line and very nearly losing her balance altogether.
“The thing with this hill is it’s not very steep,” she said later. “If you make one mistake, it not only affects the immediate split time, but it compounds down the entire slope. So there is really no room for error.”
She recovered quickly and still posted one of the day’s top times — 1:21.49 — but 0.27 seconds separated Vonn from the podium. She appeared slightly stunned and surely disappointed after the race, shaking her head at the bottom of the course.
Because she was the first of 45 racers, she had to wait and watch, hoping her mistake wouldn’t prove as costly as she feared. It took only six racers before Vonn was bumped out of the running for a possible medal.
“I was prepared. I was aggressive. I had a great inspection. I felt awesome. I skied well,” Vonn said. “Everything lined up except for one turn, and that’s all it takes, and that’s ski racing. That’s why it’s so difficult to win at the Olympics because literally anything can happen.”
[Early Lead: This is what happens when Lindsey Vonn asks for love on the Internet ]
While all eyes were on Vonn at the start of the race, it was Ledecka, 22, who stole the show. She had only one career top-10 on the World Cup circuit, finishing in seventh in the downhill two months ago in Lake Louise, Alberta. And her best super-G race before Saturday? She’d posted a pair of 19th-place finishes last season.
She’d only started skiing World Cups in February 2016, in fact. She was an elite snowboarder before that and won world championships in back-to-back years, the parallel slalom in 2015 and the parallel giant slalom in 2017. She juggled a complicated competition schedule this season, shuffling between snowboard and ski events, to become the first athlete to compete in both sports at an Olympics. In Sochi four years ago, she posted sixth- and seventh-place finishes in the slalom events as an 18-year-old.
“Her focus today was just to have a good run,” said Justin Reiter, a former U.S. snowboarder who coaches Ledecka. “She’s not a medal favorite. She just wanted to come here and be the first person ever to ski and snowboard race, and she stayed in her heart, and she stayed in her own head, and she skied like she can ski. It was beautiful to watch.”
Ledecka is skipping the downhill here to prepare for Thursday’s snowboarding parallel giant slalom.
While the ski world tries to process Saturday’s upset, Vonn will turn her attention forward. She has two more chances to nab an Olympic medal here. The women’s downhill — her best event — is scheduled for Wednesday, and the combined is set for Friday. Vonn is considered a podium threat in both.
“I don’t see this as a negative,” she said of Saturday’s loss. “Obviously, I didn’t get a medal. Man, I’ve been waiting eight years for this. I’m super happy. I left it all on the hill. Hindsight’s obviously 20/20, but I wouldn’t change anything. I attacked, and that’s what happens.”