Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso, the top two racers on the women’s U.S. ski team, downplayed their chances Friday of reaching the podium in today’s giant slalom race on Aspen Mountain.
Vonn has skied only one day of GS training since late October and she just spent a week on crutches resting a bruised left knee.
Last winter, Vonn became the first American woman since Tamara McKinney in 1983 to win the overall World Cup championship. And she got off to a fast start this season by winning a slalom race in Levi, Finland on Nov. 15.
When told at a press conference Friday that the only American woman to win a GS race in Aspen was McKinney in 1981, Vonn replied, “I don’t know if I’ll be winning any giant slaloms tomorrow, but I’m definitely going to try. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a surprise like in Levi, but I highly doubt that.”
Vonn said Friday her knee was “feeling good” but that she was “trying to be careful with it.”
“It’s not sore right now,” she said. “But sometimes with a false step, there will be a twinge. I’m just happy to be racing, that’s the bottom line.”
When asked if she thought about sitting out the GS race, Vonn replied, “I’m the kind of person, I never want to miss any race no matter where it is, especially not in the United States. I’m a little bit rusty, but I’m still going to go out there and give it 110 percent.”
Vonn is set to start in the 15th position during today’s first run, while Mancuso is set to be the first racer out of the gate at the top of Spring Pitch.
Earlier this fall, Mancuso was nursing a sore back and hasn’t been able to train as hard as she would like, although she did finish 17th in the Oct. 25 GS race on the glacier in Soelden, Austria.
“She’s not quite 100 percent yet,” said Jim Tracy, head coach of the U.S. women’s alpine team. “But I think the result in Soelden she got was good, considering the amount of days of training she’s got and the back issue.”
Mancuso, who won a gold medal in GS during the 2006 Winter Olympics, said her back started feeling better in late October.
“Right after the Soelden race my back was pain free and I did a lot of therapy and it finally feels better, kind of miraculously, but I’ve only had this block of time to push it and get up to race speed,” Mancuso said Friday.
The first of two GS runs is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. today and 60 women will start. The top 30 racers down the course will take a second run at 1 p.m., with the fastest racer from the first run going last. The racer with the lowest combined time for both runs wins the race.
Aspen race fans haven’t seen an American woman on the podium here since Kristina Koznick came in third in a slalom in 2004. Since then, Mancuso has turned in some of the best performances of American women racing GS in Aspen. In the last GS held in Aspen in 2006, Mancuso placed seventh. In the 2005 GS, she finished 12th.
Vonn has had two top-10 finishes in Aspen, coming in fourth in last year’s downhill and seventh in a Super G race in 2005.
The other Americans racing today include Megan McJames, Sarah Schleper, Leanne Smith, Stacey Cook, Keely Kelleher and Kiley Staples. McJames, 21, finished 14th in Soelden and Schleper is back after a two-year hiatus.
Among the top 15 racers going into today’s GS race are three women who have had great success in Aspen.
Kathrin Zettel of Austria has reached the podium in Aspen four times. She was third in last year’s slalom, won the GS in 2006, and was third in both the slalom and the GS in 2005. And Zettel is skiing well this season, having won the Soelden GS.
Tanja Poutiainen of Finland has also dominated in Aspen. She was second in last year’s slalom and was second in the GS in 2006. In 2004, she dominated Aspen, winning one slalom race and coming in third in the other. And she won the GS that year for good measure. Poutiainen finished second behind Zettel in the Soelden GS.
Anja Paerson of Sweden also likes Aspen. In 2005 she won the slalom and was second in the GS. In 2004, she was second in both the slalom and the GS. And in 2002, she won the slalom. Paerson is also off to a strong start this year, finishing seventh in Soelden and seventh in the Levi slalom.
All the racers starting today will be dealing with a race course that could be softer than they might like. Starting at noon on Friday, course crews worked hard to clear eight inches of fresh snow of an otherwise bulletproof track.
On Friday evening, chief of course Jim Hancock of Aspen and chief race director Atle Skaardal of Norway were hoping for cold temperatures and clear skies overnight.
“It is amazing to see how fast things can change,” Skaardal said Friday during the team captain’s meeting. “We had a great day yesterday and everybody was really happy with a great race hill and then suddenly it dumped 30 centimeters of snow on us.”
But Skaardal said the “base underneath is still quite good. We have one little weak point in Spring Pitch, but I think it is under control.”
Some women racers are expected to warm up on Little Nell this morning beginning at 7 a.m. and the course should be set and inspected by 9:15 a.m.
The best place to watch the race is in the bleachers at the top of South Aspen Street. The ski trail that connects the Little Nell trail to the finish area will not be open on Saturday. Sturdy boots and ski poles are recommended for the walk up to the bleachers, which includes about 100 yards of steep snow-covered slope. A blanket to sit on is also a good idea.
For the less hardy, Plum TV on Channel 16 in Aspen will be airing a live feed of the race and NBC will broadcast GS race coverage on Sunday, Nov. 30 at 11 a.m. local time.
bgs@aspendailynews.com