Updated 3/3:

The audio of the top three racers in men’s Olympic giant slalom is up!

Olympic gs audio

Original post:
Wow. That was a cool perspective! I just watched the 2nd run of men’s giant slalom here at the Olympics from the announcer’s booth where Doug Lewis, Chris Davenport and JP Daigneault. They put so much energy into making the race exciting for more than 6,000 fans, it made me tired just watching them. I’ll write a full-blown story about it for next week’s Stowe Reporter, but for now you can listen to them call the final three right here! Just after I figure out how to get it up on the site.

Oh, Carlo Janka of Switzerland won, follwed by Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Svindal of Norway. Tough one for the Americans, their medal streak ended today. Bode Miller went out in run one and Ted Ligety finished 9th. Tommy Ford was 26th and Jake Zamansky 31st.

We are going to have two former Dartmouth teammates, Matt Hoisington and Roger Brown give a shot at live blogging this second run.

Roger: First run looked pretty tough – soft snow with a lot of terrain is a recipe for challenging conditions for the later starters. Only four guys from outside the top thirty got in.

Unfortunately Jake was just on the wrong side of that in 34th, but Tommy Ford should have the advantage starting 5th, and he is only a little over a second out of the top ten, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him punch in there.

My podium picks: Svindal, Hirsher, Janka – I would love to put Ted on there but Svindal is a machine, the Austrians are due, and I don’t see Janka moving back very far, so I dont see a place for Ted.

Matt: Conditions are looking a little soggy in Vancouver. The guys starting early had a clean course in the first run. It will be interesting to see who among the leaders can handle the rough course in run #2.

Tommy Ford looked solid in the first run. Nice and long in the outside leg, which will serve him well in soft, inconsistent conditions. He should be amped to get after it in the second run. Zamansky just couldn’t quite put it together.

My podium picks are 1. Janka, 2. Raich, 3. Blardone. Svindal is skiing very well but I think it will be too soft for him. Blardone is historically very good on rough courses (Adelboden, etc.), and I can’t keep the veteran Raich out of the top three. Ted will have his chance, and I’ll be rooting for him, but those other guys are tough and Raich and Blardone are likely in their last Olympic games; they’ll be leaving it all on the hill.

Matt: As an aside, Bode was turning back the clock to 2004 for the first 35 seconds or so of his first run. Even though he went out, it’s great to see him skiing free and easy (and fast!) in all 4 events again.

Matt:  I was rooting for Leif too.  Would have been nice to see a collegiate racer in there, even if he is from DU

Matt:  The first 10 guys or so should give us a good indication of how this second course will run.  Let’s hope Cuche doesn’t punch any holes in the track or eviscerate too many gates.  Got to feel for the guy.  He’s had no success in these games.

Roger:  In the top thirty – two americans, two canadians, two czechs three norwigians, four austrians – were off!

Roger:  Good run by Guay.  Course has three more gates and is 2-3 seconds longer.  Dixon comes down pretty far out.  Guay skied really well though

Matt: A little ragged by Ford.  Guay’s run is looking pretty fast right now.  He was really letting them run on the bottom.

Matt: Berthod needs to reacquaint himself with the front of his boot.

Matt:  Moellg comes down nine-tenths out.   Guay’s run looking better and better.

Matt:  Cuche into the lead.  He looked gassed by the bottom.  Not a bad run, though.

Roger:  Bummer, I would have like to have seen Cuche with a bigger smile on his face to cap off his olympic career.  The italians are better at a place like alta badia – icy, turny, and steep.  Ploner just did not release the ski quite smoothly enough in the bottom of the turn.

Matt: Course seems to be holding up alright.  That bodes well for the leaders from the first run.  Kryzl just got back and couldn’t quite pull it together.

Roger:  Yeah, those little mistakes REALLY add up on a hill like this.  Simoncelli again is just arcing a little too hard I think.  nothing big, but he would have been better it it was 10 below last night.

Matt: After the first 15, Cuche still hanging on to the lead, but the gap is closing.  The next 15 should get real interesting.

Matt: Cuche gets knocked out of the lead.  Course still looking decent, but getting a little rough.

Roger:  Austria is into the lead, I dont think that is going to hold up.  Cuche is now second, and Guay is third.  the word is that weather is starting to move in.

Roger:  Neureuther into the lead.  Hes not as much of a pure GS skier so he has an advantage on an easier hill like this.  I bet thats going to hold up for a while.

Matt: Wow.  Jansrud just laid down the gauntlet for the remaining contenders.  Great run.

Roger:  So much for that prediction.  Jansrud is hilarious.  Nice bows.  He is going to be back too.  Kostelic not as fast as he needed to be.  Might have been enough if Jansrud hadn’t been so fast.

Roger:  Gorza is the fourth of FOUR slovenes to come down.  Impressive for them but he didnt get it done.

Ted on course

Bummer.  Little mistake up top, and then not super clean down the rest of it.  Ted needed a steep icy course today and this isnt that.

Richard hooks an arm and is out.  A little inside ski boot out and then hooked his arm right on the bottom of the gate.  Too bad, his coach set second run.

Raich coming up.

He hooked his arm too!

Still on course, but thats not going to do it.

I don’t think he was skiing fast enough to catch Jansrud, but he would have been in there.  I was about to say that he was the Peyton Manning of skiing.

So much for my podium.  I thought Hirsher was going to do it, but he skied through a gate coming onto the flat. The austrians cant catch a break.  He skied fast on the bottom though.

Matt:  Svindal can’t quite nip his teammate.  Wow!  Jansrud’s second run looking like the stuff of legend.

Matt: Man oh man are the Austrians pooching this one away.  Baumann not going to be close.  Norge 1 and 2 with only Janka left!  Kjus and Aamodt must be proud!

Matt: Janka losing some time at the first split.

Matt:  But he rips it and takes the victory by three four tenths – incredible skiing.  Starting 30th on a deteriorating track Janka lays down the third fastest time for the second run.  He deserves it.  No one is more talented in the world in GS right now than Janka.

Matt:  Great race.  In the end, Janka separated himself as the class of the field.  Jansrud comes from 11th after the first run to take the silver, Svindal continues his great performance at these Olympics by hanging on to the bronze.  In a way, you have to feel for the Austrians.  No team has more pressure on them.  That said, you’ve got to love the genuine joy shown by the Norwegian racers.  It’s hard not to root for them.

I feel a little like a Red Sox fan here at the Olympics, in other words, the superstition in me is starting to kick in. So far, the USA has won 6 alpine medals. Bode Miller’s got two silvers, as does Julia Manscuso. Andrew Weibrecht has bronze and Lindsey Vonn a gold. Is this team going to keep it up? Today is the women’s super g, and Lindsey Vonn has already wrapped up the World Cup title in the event. Despite her shin, she said she’s ready to roar.

Needless to say, the entire Ski Team is excited, including head honcho Bill Marolt. There is an entire entourage (actually several entourages coming in in waves) of big-time donors who have paid large sums of money to come experience the Olympics. They get shuttled to various events, and are entertained like rock stars. They wear USA gear and tote American flags.

Connecting the dots, it’s obvious why the Team’s success is not only exciting from an athletic standpoint – meaning the sheer enjoyment that comes from physically being in the finish of these races and watching it all unfold in real time – all the medals means lots of money for the U.S. Ski Team. And not just from this group of very generous, and now very enthusiastic, group of individual donors, but also from corporate sponsors. Corporate sponsorship is something that the organization has struggled with recently, so their unprecedented six alpine medals (count snowboarding and USSA gets 11 – four in halfpipe and one in sbx) is a good kick start to turn things around.

Let’s just talk a bit about Lake Placid native, Andrew Weibrecht, who won a BRONZE medal in yesterday’s super g. I went to the medal ceremony in Whistler village last night and stood with the Lake Placid crew, including Weibrecht’s coach and the mayor of Lake Placid. They were ecstatic! It was Weibrecht’s first podium – his previous best was a 10th in Beaver Creek at the start of the 2008 season. To come through with an Olympic medal performance in your second Olympic start is beyond words. Kinda like when Ted Ligety won gold in the combined in 2006. That was his first Olympic start.

Check out the photo page for some shots I took yesterday at xc and at the medal ceremony.

Also, here’s the link to my Bode Miller story, which was left out of the paper this week.