By all accounts, Lindsey Vonn is a once-in-a-generation ski talent. On Wednesday morning in South Korea, the American mountain legend added to her collection with a bronze medal in women's downhill. Vonn, 33, was aiming to become the oldest woman to ever win a gold in the downhill but was beat by her good friend, Italy's Sofia Goggia.
Goggia crossed in 1 minute, 39.22 seconds and in doing so became the first Italian woman to ever win gold in the event. Vonn -- who won the downhill at the 2010 Games in Vancouver then missed 2014's in Sochi because of injury -- was sitting in silver position for nearly 45 minutes before Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel finished seventh one-hundredths off Goggia's pace. Mowinckwel took silver, while Vonn's 1:39.69 time secured bronze.
"I skied a great race today, Sophia just skied better than I did," Vonn said on NBC. "I thought I executed the line really well on the whole course, but, I don't know, maybe I executed a little too well, I tried too hard to stay on the perfect line. But I have no regrets. I'm really happy, I'm especially happy and proud of my teammates. ... But it was tough to contemplate this being my last Olympic downhill race and I struggled to try to keep the emotions together but I left it all on the mountain like I said I would, and I'm proud of my performance."
Vonn called Goggia "untouchable" with how she skied on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Mowinckel became the first Norwegian to medal in women's downhill in 82 years. Vonn looked in good form, taking edges hard and trying to find her line as efficiently as possible. She lost time in the middle part of the run, which is exactly where Goggia made her push. Goggia sits atop the sport of women's downhill at the moment, and was a formidable friendly rival for Vonn heading into these Games. Wednesday's gold medal was a culmination of how hard Goggia has worked to usurp the world-renowned Vonn.
Once a bronze medal seemed imminent, Vonn was again interviewed live on NBC. She reflected again on her run, on the fact that this was the final downhill race of her Olympic life, and then got emotional while speaking about her late grandfather.
"It's been really hard for me not to get emotional for so many reasons, especially because of my grandfather and I wanted to win so much because of him," Vonn said. "But I still think I made him proud. Our family never gives up, and I never gave up. I kept working hard, and I'm really proud of this medal and I know he is, too."
Vonn credits much of her love of skiing to her late grandfather, Don Kildow. She personalized messages to him on her helmet and glove.
This bronze medal brings the United States' total medals to 13 (five golds, three silvers, five bronze).
There is one more race left in Vonn's Olympic career. It will come on Thursday morning in South Korea and will be broadcast live on Wednesday night back in the United States. She and Team USA comrade Mikaela Shiffrin will go for the gold in the combined, which involves slalom and downhill.
|
Country
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
14 | 14 | 11 | 39 |
|
14 | 10 | 7 | 31 |
|
11 | 8 | 10 | 29 |
|
9 | 8 | 6 | 23 |
|
8 | 6 | 6 | 20 |
|
7 | 6 | 1 | 14 |
|
5 | 8 | 4 | 17 |
|
5 | 6 | 4 | 15 |
|
5 | 4 | 6 | 15 |
|
5 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
|
4 | 5 | 4 | 13 |
|
3 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
|
2 | 6 | 9 | 17 |
|
2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
|
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
|
1 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
|
1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
|
1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
|
1 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
|
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
|
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
|
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
