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Wachter's career ends
ST. ANTON, Austria (AP) -- Anita Wachter, Austria's "Grande Dame" of skiing, knew it was her last chance Friday to win a gold medal and that dream carried her well for about half of the giant slalom first run. But her hopes were buried midway down the soft and bumpy Fang course, prompting Wachter, who turns 34 on Monday, to say her career was coming to an end after 17 years on the World Cup circuit. "I really did not have good results this season so I knew I had to go very fast today," said Wachter, called by her fans the "Grande Dame." "I had to risk everything to be on the top and I tried this and I made a mistake and I went out." Wachter, who started with No. 8, charged down with courage and her trademark excellent technique, posting the best intermediate time in the upper part of the course. When everything looked well, and home fans blew the trumpets louder, the edges suddenly lost grip on a steep right turn and she fell. Sonja Nef of Switzerland won the giant ahead of Karen Putzer of Italy and Anja Paerson of Sweden, crushing the dreams of Austrian women to win on home snow. Downhill champion Michaela Dorfmeister placed eighth, the best of Austrian team. "This is life and skiing is not everything," Wachter said of her fall. Wachter said she was still considering her options, but that this was her last world championship. Wachter has won three Olympic medals, including a gold in the combined in 1988 in Calgary and five world championship trophies, but she lacked a gold in the giant slalom, her favorite race. In the World Cup, since she won her first podium place - second in the giant slalom in Waterville Valley in the United States - when she was 17, Wachter collected 19 victories in giant slalom, super-G, slalom and the combined races. Her last victory came Dec. 28, 1999, when she won a giant in Lienz, Austria, a year after her spectacular comeback that followed months of struggling with a knee injury that almost ended her career four years ago. After winning the bronze medal in the giant slalom in Vail, Colorado, two years ago, Wachter thought of retiring. "But I was motivated one more time when I started thinking about World Championship in St. Anton," about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from her hometown of Schruns. "Sometimes I'm looking forward to retiring, and sometimes I think it's a very nice life," she said. "But I'm getting on 34 and I have to do something." "I don't know what I'm going to do yet," she said smiling. "I'll make some promotion for my ski factory and I hope to have a family," indicating she's going to marry her partner, Austria's veteran skier Rainer Salzgeber. "We have been together for many years," she said.
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