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The good and the bad
ST. ANTON, Austria -- The Alpine World Ski Championships have been put to rest. The same can't be said for the natives in St. Anton who are singing in several established languages and a few random syllables outside our window. Here is a review of some highlights and lowlights from the championships: HIGHLIGHT: Nine different skiers from the host nation won a combined 11 medals here. (That was eight more medals than any other team -- the Swiss, Norwegians, French, Germans and Italians each took home three.) Austrian women scored a clean sweep of the downhill events. This was serious composure for a team in a ski-mad land. The first question directed at two of the coaches when the team failed to win a medal in the giant slalom: "Would it be proper for you to resign now?" That's grace under extreme fire. LOWLIGHT: It's tough to label a double-medal performance a failure, but Hermann Maier is supposed to be able to fly down the hill like a bird, as he did in winning two medals at the last Olympics. Or else he should have to fly off the course, as he did during the downhill in Nagano. Instead, Maier won just a silver medal in the downhill and a bronze in the Super G. Maier was gracious in congratulating his superior teammates and foes, but he wasn't great at acknowledging performances that simply outdid his. "If the course had been a hundred meters longer, I would have won," he said after the downhill. If his answer had been a dozen words shorter, he would have won more respect. HIGHLIGHT: Daron Rahlves had won only two World Cup events in his career, both downhills in Kvitfell, Norway, before these championships. But we should have known better than to overlook the Californian, based on his strong showings on the treacherous Streif in Kitzbühel, Austria, last month. It's the most difficult, most respected, most feared course in the world, and Rahlves was both the only non-Austrian to finish in the top five in the Super G and the only non-Austrian among the first four in the downhill. "Why should we be surprised?" asked Austria's Stefan Eberharter, who placed second to Rahlves. "He has been close to a result like this for a long time." LOWLIGHT: Then there's the rest of the U.S. squad; the team bus must have took a wrong turn on the way to the demolition derby. Erik Schlopy skied off course 16 seconds into Thursday's giant slalom. Caroline Lalive had a hat trick of DNFs (Super G, combined and downhill), but it took a fourth crash, this one in slalom training, to send her home. Bode Miller, who seemed primed for a medal in the combined, went airborne near the end of the final run and returned home with an unspecified injury to his left knee. Casey Puckett went down in the same race. Sarah Schleper went "off-piste." Even those who made it to the finish struggled. Chad Fleischer, a talented speed racer, continues to have trouble with his boots and bindings (read: confidence?). Kristina Koznick, who is estranged from the rest of the U.S. team while she trains with her boyfriend/coach, looked a step slow in both the slalom and GS. Talent abounds on this team, but this week -- Rahlves' thrilling run notwithstanding -- so do bandages. HIGHLIGHT: No skier won more than one gold medal here, so we'll nominate Norwegian veteran Kjetil Andre Aamodt as the unofficial skier of the meet. Aamodt won a gold in the combined and a silver in the giant slalom, boosting his total at worlds to an all-time-best 10 and his total at worlds and Olympics combined to an unprecedented 15. Yet he does so without much flair. "So I am dull," he admits. He's also smart. Aamodt pulled out of the downhill here to rest for the GS. That took the heat off what he admitted were tired legs. Aamodt still wants to win a world or Olympic title in the downhill, the one crown that has eluded him. The scary thing is he admits that because his performances in the technical events have been better than those in the speed events, he may wait until the next quadrennium (as in 2003-2006) to focus on the longer races. LOWLIGHT: Aamodt's countryman and childhood buddy, Lasse Kjus, was a dud. What was it with Kjus here? His knee? His weight? His fatigue? "It wasn't an interesting competition for me," he surmised after missing out on the medals. Kjus once won medals in all five events at a world championship. His zero here suggests that he should either reduce his workload, as Aamodt did -- or maybe, based on his belly, just reduce his load. HIGHLIGHT: Germany's Martina Ertl didn't even know if she'd be healthy enough from a season-long knee injury to compete here. But she simply blew away the field in the final run of the combined, becoming a world champion and an early favorite in the upcoming Olympic year. LOWLIGHT: Croatian teenager Janica Kostelic was the hottest thing going on the World Cup circuit this year, stomping the field in one slalom race after another. Then she came to St. Anton, whiffed in her events and said, "It's good it didn't happen in a World Cup race." Keep thinking like that and it will. The pressure won't lessen next year when the world zeroes in on this potential Olympic star. HIGHLIGHT: St. Anton is the perfect place to hold a world ski championship. The après-ski session takes each day into the next; the mountains belong on postcards; and 35,000 people, all but a few with obstructed standing positions, crowd in to watch the men's downhill. Bring the championships back here anytime. LOWLIGHT: But if you do, then please fix the snow. Several delegations complained to the Fédération Internationale de Ski that the courses were improperly prepared after heavy snow and warm temperatures delayed competition for two and a half days. Only 43 of 83 skiers finished the women's slalom, run on a badly rutted course under the warm evening lights. Guys, the mogul worlds were last month. NOW FOR today's Best Name from the Championships award: And the winner is ... from Slovenia, Peter Pen. The dude can really fly. Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for tha magazine and is a frequent contributor to CNNSI.com.
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