Another Crash Means Lindsay Vonn's 2010 Winter Olympics Over

Sports News - February 26th, 2010 - Written By Bryan Cross

American skier Lindsay Vonn was hoping to medal in as many as five events in the 2010 Winter Olympics, but will have to settle for two.

Her grueling Vancouver Games, which provided a broken pinkie and banged up shin, are over after failing to finish her first run in the women's slalom Friday. It's the second race in a row that she failed to finish her first run.

Her race was cut short when she straddled a gate midway through and crashed, and the American star skied easily down the mountain the rest of the way. It was the second time she crashed in a slalom after biting it in Wednesday's super-combined, and is the fifth time in a row she finished outside the top-3 in a combined slalom.

Instead, it's Germany's Maria Riesch who is in first place with an initial run of 50.75 seconds. The Czech Republic's Sarka Zahrobska is in second, just .40 off the lead, and Austria's Marlies Schild is in third.

The only American inside the top-10 is Sarah Schleper, who is 1.08 seconds off the lead.

Vonn finishes the Olympics a lot quieter than the way she started - amid a media frenzy coupled with a gold in her very first event. She took first place in the downhill and then the bronze in the Super-G, suddenly justifying the hype she received as a favorite in nearly every Online Sportsbook offering Olympic Betting Lines.

But her performance took a sudden downward spiral late by crashing in Wednesday's super-combined. In that spill, she broke her right pinkie and was questionable for the slalom.

Not everyone was so sympathetic. American Julia Mancuso said she was irked by the media onslaught, and felt the rest of Team USA was fighting for attention.

"People are having a hard time reaching their potential because it's such a struggle for attention," she said. "You come to meetings after races and it's like it's a bad day if Lindsey didn't do well."

Mancuso's day got worse because of Vonn's crash. The pair were scheduled to go back-to-back, and Mancuso had already started her first run of the super-combined when waved off the course due to the crash. She was asked to start again, and finished 18th after her first full run.

Officials said Mancuso was directed to start her run before Vonn was finished because start times were condensed to fit time restraints.