Marcus Hayes: Vonn's crash disrupts teammate Mancuso

WHISTLER MOUNTAIN, British Columbia - You remember this one: "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!"

Here, it's "Lindsey! Lindsey! Lindsey!"

That's what weepy Julia Mancuso had to be thinking, lying on her back in the corral at the bottom of Franz's Run, where the skiers end their races here.

Mancuso stood 18th after her first giant-slalom run, virtually eliminated from medal contention. Fog postponed the second run until today, but, for Mancuso, it probably will be an exercise in futility.

And it's all Lindsey Vonn's fault.

Well, not really.

Julia, the cutie-pie with two medals here and three overall, once again played Jan Brady, overshadowed by a prettier, more popular Marcia - or, in this case, Vonn, who also has medaled twice here.

Vonn's crash near the end of her first run broke her right pinkie, put tomorrow's slalom in doubt and inadvertently sabotaged Mancuso. Yesterday, incredibly, Mancuso started just behind Vonn.

Mancuso had skied almost two-thirds of the course when she was stopped because Vonn was entangled in netting on a lower turn. Mancuso had to restart 31st, about 20 minutes later, on a foggy course quickly turning to mush, a course mangled beyond hope by 13 more skiers.

Mancuso skied cleanly, saw her time, threw a pole to the ground and collapsed in the corral. She stayed there for more than 3 minutes. Two other skiers finished and skied around her before she retrieved her pole and skulked out of the exit gate.

"It was . . . just . . . a bummer," said Mancuso, the defending gold medalist. "It's really a bummer when you come into the race you've been waiting for your whole career and something happens like that."

She performed her act of anguish in the same corral where Vonn collapsed a week before . . . in triumph, having won downhill gold.

Vonn, nursing her fractured finger, watched Mancuso in the corral with sympathy.

"I know she was disappointed. She's mad. Probably frustrated. And probably mad at me," Vonn said, earnestly. "But I can't help that I fell."

Yes, Mancuso was stunned, and mad. "To see that yellow flag waving - I was thinking, 'Is this really happening?' " Mancuso said. "I was thinking, 'Just get ahold of yourself.' "

She was briefly delayed on the snowmobile ride back up the mountain. She was supposed to go downhill and take a gondola back up, but her driver didn't know that, and she got to ride the machine back to the start gate.

There, she cursed a lot, skied her run, then stewed for more than 3 hours, waiting for a second run that never came.

Mancuso didn't like the way the incident was handled, but, with skiers starting only 1 minute apart, she was already on the course before Vonn crashed. She said she should have been stopped sooner, or that Vonn should have been removed quicker, but Vonn was entangled in netting and, race officials said, it was stopped as quickly as possible.

With no one else to blame, is Mancuso, in fact, mad at Vonn? "Today? No."

Is there resentment?

She didn't deny it. She avoided the topic. That's answer enough.

Yesterday's events added a layer of resentment to the growing Mancuso/Vonn conflict. It isn't Tonya/Nancy - Tommy Vonn isn't going to hire anyone to pipe Mancuso in the knee - but it is becoming a bit bitter.

Mancuso this week told Sports Illustrated that the dynamic on the U.S. team was strained "because it's such a struggle for attention," and that postrace meetings had been strained "if Lindsey didn't do well."

Yesterday, Vonn's soft blue eyes showed more hurt than her aching pinkie.

"I always support her. It definitely has hurt me, that she's said some negative things about me," Vonn said. "All I can do is continue to support her like I always have been and hope that she reciprocates that."

Keep hoping, Marcia, while Jan wallows in her misfortune.

"We're pushing 100 percent or more for 50 seconds," Mancuso said. "That's like running an extra 400-meter sprint, then having to go up 5 minutes later and do it again."

It should be noted that, when Mancuso stopped, she was in the middle of a choppy run that began with her snagging a glove on an early gate.

Vonn, on the other hand, was skiing wonderfully when she fell. Vonn lost her outside ski on a left turn just as her right hit a bump. She couldn't recover and hit it, hard. The crash cost Vonn a shot at a third medal in the four events she has run so far. She also has a sore shin, back, knee and chin. She said she would wait until today to decide if she'll run the slalom tomorrow.

Mancuso, meanwhile, already has bowed out of the slalom.

She didn't seem to stand much of a chance in the GS, either. She entered the games 28th in the World Cup GS standings. She'd had back problems and equipment issues, and, while she clearly has peaked here, the GS was her fourth exhausting race in 7 days - a week of Lindsey love.

Not that Julia didn't angle for some attention herself.

Mancuso used the women's ski team's opening press conference here to announce her establishment of a lingerie line called "Kiss My Tiara." She wears a tiara mural on her helmet, a vestige of her 2006 glory.

The announcement flopped. The same day, Vonn, close to tears, detailed her shin injury and intimated that she might withdraw from the games.

Lindsey! Lindsey! Lindsey!

Vonn's come-hither swimsuit portfolio electrified pre-Games chatter. Mancuso's lingerie line? Barely a ripple.

Maybe Vonn will make it up to her. Maybe she'll pose in some of Mancuso's boyshorts and thongs when the line officially gets launched. Talk about a win-win.

Not likely. Mancuso, her run aborted, paused as she skied past Vonn, who was still on her backside. She said something.

Maybe she told Lindsey to kiss her tiara.

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