Vonn takes bronze in super-giant slalom

American Lindsey Vonn, the overall World Cup leader, gold medal winner in the downhill and the favorite for this race, finished third.

Vonn was the 17th skier down Whistler Mountain Saturday and her time of 1:20.88 put her in the lead. Her chief rival on the World Cup circuit, Maria Riesch of Germany, had already turned in her run, so it seemed as if Vonn was set to capture her second gold medal of the Vancouver Olympics.

Fischbacher, however, was much faster on the lower portion of the course than Vonn had been and the Austrian jumped to the top of the standings with a time of 1:20.14. Fischbacher is third in the World Cup super-G points behind Vonn and Fabienne Suter of Switzerland.

Tina Maze of Slovenia then bested Vonn as well in the time of 1:20.63.

American Julia Mancuso, who won a medal in both the downhill and super combined, settled for a ninth-place finish.

Vonn was almost deprived a bronze when Italian Johanna Schnarf came within 0.11 of a second of third place. Schnarf was not among the seeded skiers, having been given the No. 30 start position.

A section of the course near the midway point proved to be the most troublesome for high-profile and lightly regarded skiers alike. Almost a third of the field failed to make it to the bottom, most coming to grief in that section between the first and second check points.

The U.S. team has won a medal in each of the first five alpine races. The American alpine skiers have seven medals, two more than at any other Winter Olympics.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).