Vonn to race today despite injury; Mancuso backs off criticism

VANCOUVER - The U.S. ski team yesterday confirmed that Lindsey Vonn will race today, despite breaking her right pinkie in a crash Wednesday that ended her first run in the giant slalom.

A contender in all five events entering the Winter Games, Vonn won the downhill, took bronze in the super-G, and washed out in the GS and the super-combined.

The location and severity of Vonn's crash Wednesday forced teammate and recent critic Julia Mancuso to stop her own, choppy run two-thirds of the way through it.

Mancuso, the defending gold medalist, happened to be scheduled to start right after Vonn. As was the protocol, Mancuso exited the start gate 1 minute behind Vonn, or right about the time Vonn crashed.

Mancuso restarted about 20 minutes, and 13 skiers, later and finished 1.30 seconds behind the leader of the first run, in 18th place. Mancuso bitterly complained about the race officials' handling of the matter: about being allowed to start at all, about being stopped, about her transportation back to the top.

In fact, race officials acted perfectly. Yesterday, Mancuso backed off her critical comments.

"I know it all comes down to safety first, and you have to respect the decision made by everyone working on the hill to make it fun and safe for everyone," Mancuso said.

Fog pushed the second GS run from Wednesday afternoon until yesterday morning. Mancuso's run, third-best of the day, placed her eighth, 0.55 seconds behind unheralded Viktoria Rebensburg, of Germany, who was sixth Wednesday. The silver went to Tina Maze, of Slovenia, who also was second in the super-G.

Wednesday's leader, Elisabeth Goergl, of the reeling Austrian team, was pushed to bronze.

The GS ended Mancuso's Olympics, since she already backed out of the slalom. A dark horse coming in - a back injury and equipment issues plagued her the past 2 years - Mancuso was a surprise, of sorts.

She won silvers, in the downhill and super-combined, helping the U.S. ski team to a record eight medals, with the women's and men's slaloms coming up today and tomorrow, respectively. Her downhill silver was a part of the Team USA record of six medals in 1 day, set Feb. 17.

"I couldn't have asked for anything more," Mancuso said. "I mean, I haven't been on a podium for 2 years, and then to come in here and take two silver medals is incredible, and then to be a part of a team that had an amazing Olympics is special. It's really perfect."

Plus, she's only 25: "I feel like this was another steppingstone in my career. I'm healthy, and I know how to stay healthy. I'm going to use all of this momentum to go into the next season and the years to come." *