Victor Wins Slalom Silver
WHISTLER CREEKSIDE, BC - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Team member, Stephani Victor (Park City, UT; sit-ski) has won a silver medal in the women's sit-ski slalom. This is Victor's third career Paralympic medal and the first U.S. alpine skiing medal of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Victor finished her two runs in 2:12.63, trailing Austria’s Claudia Loesch by just 0.58. The bronze medal when to Japan’s Kuniko Obinata, who finished with a time of 2:18.60.
"Life is good. I can’t complain at all. I would have liked it to have been gold for the U.S., but that’s how it goes," Victor said after the race.
After placing first in the training run earlier in the day, a slight mistake near the middle of the course cost Victor the gold medal. "A little hesitation cost me the race, but I wanted to make sure I was on my line and because I wasn’t sure and hesitated, that ate up all my time," she said.
Victor, a gold medalist in slalom from Torino and bronze medalist in downhill from Salt Lake City, was confident and prepared for the opening event after Saturday's downhill was postponed. "There are a lot of nerves for a defending gold medalist, but I have trained, I have prepared, I have studied this course," she said after the first run.
Her preparation though, couldn’t help the weather conditions and the more difficult course set in the afternoon. A heavy, wet snow began to fall just before the start of the second run, shortening visibility and changing course conditions to a softer surface. The afternoon course set also had more turns and was wider than the morning’s set.
"The set this morning was very nice. It had a nice flow," Victor said. "This one had a lot of tricks and I knew I had to pay attention. I’d hit all the key points up above and this one was really critical. I just didn’t have it committed to memory the way it was."
Victor’s win is the first for the U.S. Alpine team. Ray Watkins, the team’s head coach, credited Victor’s experience and determination with today’s win. “She’s a fighter. Today she had to come out and fight on both runs. She’s one of the strongest slalom skiers in the world and she just made a quick little mistake, in the heat of the moment that cost her, but a silver medal is really special,” Watkins said. “We’re thrilled for her and can’t wait to see her collect it tonight.”
The U.S. team put in a strong showing with Laurie Stephens (Wenham, MA) fifth and Luba Lowery (Denver, CO), Alana Nichols (Farmington, NM), and Ricci Kilgore (Reno, NV) following in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.
On the men’s side, Team USA had two top-ten finishers. Carl Burnett (Bend, OR), went from 18th after the first run to an impressive ninth.
"I’m super stoked," Burnett said. "I knew if I could just put the hammer down and blast through those ruts and bumps and keep the ski aligned, it would be good enough to move up a few spots – I didn’t expect nine spots. I’m really happy."
Tyler Walker (Franconia, NH) was 10th. The gold medal went to Germany’s Martin Braxenthaler with a time of 1:41.63 with silver to Josh Dueck of Canada and the bronze to Phillipp Bonadimann of Austria.
"Today was a rough day," Watkins said. "The course conditions were really variable and it was a rodeo ride the whole way down.
"You have to fight and that’s what our team likes to do and we’re going to come out and fight tomorrow too," he added.
Following Sunday's slalom action shifts to giant slalom Monday at Whistler Creekside. Saturday's postponed downhill is now set for Thursday.
