ALPINE:

Iceman Janka nails down GS gold for Switzerland

Feb. 23, 2010 — SRC Staff Report         

►Photos: below, Carlo Janka (Paul Morrison); men's podium (Agence Zoom): Erik Guay (PM); Kjetil Jansrud (PM)

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WHISTLER, B.C. — Carlo Janka of Switzerland added the Olympic gold medal to his world championship in giant slalom on Tuesday, while Bode Miller failed to finish in his bid for a record fourth men's alpine medal.

The 23-year-old Janka led after the first run and had a combined two-leg time of 2 minutes, 37.83 seconds.

Norway took the silver and bronze medals. Kjetil Jansrud jumped from 11th after the first run to take silver, 0.39 seconds back, and Aksel Lund Svindal was 0.61 back for bronze, matching Miller's three-medal tally at the Vancouver Games. Svindal won the super-G and was second in downhill.

"It was something special today," Janka said. "I was a little bit nervous between the runs. I had a great second run without mistakes."

Canada’s Erik Guay had a scintillating second run on a fresh course — he started second in the afternoon run — and held the lead for much of the early going of the second run, finishing 16th. Robbie Dixon was 24th, Patrick Biggs 35th and Brad Spence 42nd.

Miller almost crashed in the top half of the course on the first run and then couldn't correct his line coming out of a right-hand gate in the second half.

"I'm taking more risk than everyone else. That's partly why I'm able to get medals," Miller told The Associated Press afterward.

"I did a good job today, too," he continued. "I was right there. I was right on the edge."

U.S. men's head coach Sasha Rearick said Miller "was skiing with passion" but paid the price when he tried to make up time.

"Bode skied great up top and then went down on his hip, made a recovery like only Bode can but came in late to the next panel and hooked a gate with his hand," Rearick said. "He then made another spectacular recovery and went straight back into hammering the line."

The 32-year-old Miller, from Franconia, N.H., won gold in the super-combined, silver in super-G and bronze in downhill, and was trying to become the first alpine skier to win four medals in the same Olympics. His last chance will be in the slalom scheduled for Saturday.

Austria's "Wunderteam" was shut out of the men's medals for the fourth straight race at these Games, settling for the 4-5-6 finishers in Marcel Hirscher, Romed Baumann and Benjamin Raich. Neighbor and big rival Switzerland now has two alpine golds; Didier Defago won the downhill a week earlier.

"We have not very many medals, but we have a lot in gold," Janka said.

Janka is known as the Iceman at home for his cool emotions, and his celebration was typically understated. He shook his ski poles low to the ground and then raised his arms above his head, allowing himself a smile of satisfaction.

Two days earlier, Janka had walked away angrily from the super-combined event where he finished fourth.

He arrived at the Olympics second in the World Cup overall standings and was projected by many as a breakout star. But Janka was a disappointing 11th in the Olympic downhill and eighth in super-G — just 0.18 second behind bronze medallist Andrew Weibrecht of the U.S. — before missing a super-combi medal by 0.22, in a race won by Miller on Sunday.

Jansrud had never won a top-level race but continued his recent excellent run in giant slalom. He had top-three finishes three times in World Cup races last month.

Svindal was third after the first run but made a big mistake in the top half of his run. He sat back on his skis approaching a left-hand gate and lost speed.

Guay, whose best result in a giant slalom event was a 14th place two years ago in Bormio, Italy, said he wasn't expecting much from Tuesday and is pretty satisfied with what he did.

"Realistically, I knew I wasn't going to be in the top five today. My game plan all along was to make top 30 in the first run in order to have an early start in the second one and then to be able to take some chance and that is what I was able to do, so I'm pretty happy about that," said Guay. 

"We are definitely not happy with our results, because finishing fifth is not where you want to be. You want to be on the podium, but this a sport were we play with hundredth of seconds and people that know about skiing, know that we were in the game.”

The weather-plagued alpine program is now back on schedule. The GS was originally set for Sunday but was bumped two days to accommodate the delayed men's super-combined.

Whistler has enjoyed a week-long dry spell, although racers skied in overcast conditions Tuesday.

Some rain and snow is forecast for Wednesday, when the women's giant slalom is scheduled.  SRC

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Whistler men's Olympic GS results