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Little known German wins Gold in Women's G-Slalom |
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Friday, 26 February 2010 |
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German Viktoria Rebensburg, still an apprentice in elite level skiing, celebrated a surprise women's Olympic giant slalom gold on Thursday after Austria failed to end a 58-year jinx in the discipline.
The 20-year-old former junior world champion, who had to reschedule her flight home after fog forced the second leg of the race to be postponed on Wednesday, powered from sixth overnight to take her first senior victory.
Tina Maze took silver, losing out on her country's first gold by 0.04, to become the first Slovenian to win two Winter Games medals.
Austria's Elisabeth Goergl, the overnight leader, had to settle for a second bronze.
Austrians have dominated on the slopes over the years but giant slalom gold has eluded their women since the race was first introduced at the Games in 1952.
With three in the top four before the final descent of the Franz's run slope in cloudy conditions, they had looked set to end that wait.
They failed. Kathrin Zettel slipped from third to fifth, Eva-Maria Brem went from fourth to seventh while Goergl's 0.35 advantage over Rebensburg disappeared within seconds of her leaving the start hut.
Instead it was Rebensburg, without a World Cup win to her name, who became Germany's first women's giant slalom champion in 54 years and second youngest Alpine gold medalist.
"It sounds so strange, it's unbelievable," she said. "I think it's going to take a few days for me to realize it."
BIG FIGHT
Germany's last female winner in the discipline was Ossi Reichert at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Games in Italy, and the country's women have now won two of the four races here, with Maria Riesch triumphant in super combined.
Maze added a silver to the one she took in super-G. "It's great. When I arrived here of course I knew I was a strong racer and could race well but I didn't expect I would take two silvers," she said.
Goergl said the second leg, with cloudy conditions on the upper stretch, was softer than she had expected: "I tried everything, it was a big fight," she said.
American Lindsey Vonn went out in Wednesday's first leg in a crash that also scuppered the chances of team mate Julia Mancuso, the 2006 champion and a double silver medalist at these Games.
Eighteenth after the first leg and with 1.30 seconds to recover, Mancuso rescued some pride and made a statement of sorts with eighth place overall and the third fastest run of the day.
"I'm happy and proud for the girls on the podium," she said. "I was pretty close but I guess I'll wait for another four years.
"Yesterday was so emotional," added the California-based skier, who fled the finish in tears after the first run but was smiling a day later. "It was really tough and I dealt with it.
"It sucks but sometimes that's what happens in life."
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