ROSA KHUTOR, Russia (Feb. 12) - Super combined bronze medalist Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) led the U.S. Ski Team with eighth in Thursday's Olympic downhill as Dominique Gisin of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia made history with a tie for gold. An Olympic medal tie has happened four times since 1948 in alpine skiing, but before today, had never happened for a gold medal. Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR) finished 11th, Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) 17th and rookie Jackie Wiles (Aurora, OR) 26th. The women’s downhill will be featured on NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage Wednesday Feb. 12 at 7:00 p.m. EST and can be streamed on NBCOlympics.com.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Four-time Olympic medalist Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) finished eighth in the 2014 Olympic downhill to lead the U.S. Ski Team in Sochi.
- Swiss Dominique Gisin and Tina Maze of Slovenia produced a dramatic tie for the win with a time of 1:41.57, the first joint gold medal winners in Olympic alpine history.
- Alpine medal ties had happened four other times in Olympic history; the 1948 men's DH, 1964 women's GS, 1992 women's GS and 1998 men's SG.
- Another Swiss, Lara Gut, earned bronze, while Americans Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR), Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) and Jackie Wiles (Aurora, OR) finished 11-17-26.
- Super G, the final women's speed event, will be staged Feb. 15 before the program switches to technical events.
- Mancuso, Cook and Leanne Smith (N. Conway, NH) will start the super G in addition to either Ross or Wiles.
- The downhill will be featured on NBC's primetime coverage beginning Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. EST.
- The next alpine medal event is men's super combined on Feb. 14 featuring 2006 Olympic Champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) and defending Olympic Champion Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) in addition to Olympic super G bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) and Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT).
QUOTES
Julia Mancuso
I caught a lot of air off the first jump and it kind of caught me by surprise. That made me a little bit nervous for the rest of the run. I changed my plan a little because there was some more terrain and it did not work. The snow was just a little softer, but I'm more of an instinct skier and I just thought too much today. I didn't let go and let my body do it's thing. I wasn't as on it as I was in the super combined. This hill is tough and really difficult to stay focused on the whole run, but that 's what separates the champions from the rest of us on race day.
I am disappointed with my skiing, I made some big mistakes. I would like to have another chance, but it's over. I have to move on to my next event.
There's going to be two Olympic champions and that's cool. It's always special when something unexpected happens at the Olympics.
Laurenne Ross
I made some good turns, but was tossed around a little bit on the pitch. It was a little faster today. It was good, icy hard snow and it made it a bit bumpier, but all in all I wish I could have cleaned up a couple of mistakes and been more in the hunt.
Stacey Cook
I feel like I skied better than my time was. I felt like it was comparable to what I had done in my fast training runs. I don't know exactly what went wrong. It's an Olympic race and they're always unpredictable, but I feel like I was prepared to be skiing for a medal. I think all of us performed our hearts out and did the best that we could. Considering the season that we've had coming into this, I think that we all hung onto belief for so long, but it just couldn't quite be enough today.
Jackie Wiles
There were some nerves today, but I feel like I channeled that into some good energy. I was ready to go but I needed to attack it more to be fast. I got tossed around a little bit, but overall if you're in a good position, the bumps aren't an issue.
We have a good team vibe going. It's been a privilege for me to be a part of this team.
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