Lindsey Vonn crashes out of Olympic giant slalom

From Sportsbeat staff, in Whistler

LINDSEY Vonn's dreams of a third Olympic medal are over after she crashed out of the women's giant slalom at a foggy Whistler Creekside.

PACESETTER: Austria's Elisabeth Goergl is leading the way after the first run of the women's Olympic giant slalom (Getty Images)

Vonn might be leading the overall World Cup standings but she clipped a gate midway down the course, losing her balance and crashing heavily into the safety netting.

She lay there for several minutes as medics checked her over before getting to her feet and gingerly skiing down the rest of the course, as mother Linda Krohn and husband Thomas both looked on anxiously.

"I am OK. I hurt my hand and will get an X-ray. My body is OK. I am just frustrated. I am disappointed with myself,” she said.

"My husband gave me the course report and the conditions were deteriorating fast at the bottom."

"I came into this with confidence, but I seem never quite to be able to get it into the finish."

The 25-year old American had made no secret that the giant slalom was her weakest event in Vancouver, writing on her Facebook page yesterday that it was 'nice to be an underdog'.

Vonn's participation at the Games had been in doubt after she revealed she had picked up a shin injury during training, just one week before the Games.

But she started her much-hyped bid for five medals with an impressive downhill gold before failing to finish the super combined and claiming bronze in the super-G.

Vonn's spill delayed the start of teammate Julia Mancuso, who was the surprise winner of the giant slalom in Turin four years ago and has already claimed two silver medals here in Whistler.

However, she will commence the second run 1.3 seconds behind the early leaders in a distant 18th place.

“I’m sorry I held up Julia,” added Vonn.

“She will be disappointed because she knew the course was deteriorating fast. I feel terrible that I crashed and hurt her chances. I did not want that to happen."

Austria's Elisabeth Goergl is the first run pacesetter at Whistler Creekside but poor visibility is making conditions tough, with some questioning why organisers had started the event.

France's Taina Barioz is just fractions behind while Austria's Kathrin Zettel, second in the giant slalom World Cup standings, is third.

World Cup leader Kathrin Hoelzl is tenth after the first run while Great Britain's Chemmy Alcott is a provisional 24th in the 86-strong field.

 

AS IT HAPPENS; Day 13 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver