The 2006 Winter Olympics is one Bode Miller wants to forget.
Coming in as the Poster Child of the American delegation, Miller exits the game, frustrated, ego-bruised, and empty-handed.

Some Miller would be great for Bode right about now… (Source: Newsweek Magazine)
This is not a slam on Bode, he is still a great athlete. But looking back, it would have been great had he exercised a little shrewd discretion, a little more caution.
So, what happened really?

Julia Mancuso became the first American Woman to win an Olympic Alpine Skiing event (Giant Slalom) since Picabo Street did it back in 1998.
Skiing in less-than-perfect weather sans her signature good-luck tiara (athletes MUST WEAR Head Protective Gear in the Giant Slalom event), Julia had two very strong runs down the challenging slopes, in both cases, taking the more aggressive line. Her combined time was 2 minutes 9.19 seconds.

Mancuso skiing in near-blizzard conditions (Source: NBC)

Several other circumstances factored into Julia’s victory.

After winning the Downhill event 5 days earlier, Dorftmeister is again on the podium with a Gold Medal around her neck. This time for the Women’s Super-G event (which was postponed yesterday due to inclement weather). Dorftmeister’s time was 1 minute 32.47 seconds.

Austria’s Raich and Dorftmeister competing in the Giant Slalom and Super-G events respectively (Source: NBC)
Fellow Countryman, Benjamin Raich, won the Gold at the Men’s Giant Slalom event (Total Time – 2 minutes 35 seconds).

Official News from Torino Website .. for those of you actually following the scheduled timetable of events ..

Feb 20 2006
SESTRIERE, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The start times of Monday’s two Alpine ski races at the Turin Olympics have been put back to allow workers to clear snow from the pistes, organisers said.
Heavy snow had fallen all day on Sunday, forcing a postponement of the women’s super-G by 24 hours.
Monday dawned clear and bright but organisers said they needed time to clear the men’s giant slalom piste in Sestriere and the women’s super-G course in nearby San Sicario.
The two …read more

The women’s Super-G Alpine skiing event scheduled today for 12:00 local time (6:00 am ET) was postponed..
The Italian Alps were blanketed with snow and heavy fog Sunday morning, forcing ski race officials to postpone the women’s super-G at the Torino Games.
The race will be re-scheduled for either Monday or Tuesday
[..more..]
and [..even more..]

The American’s woe at the Alpine Skiing event continues…

No ‘Miller Time‘ for Bode just yet… (Source: Newsweek Magazine)
Bode, Bode, Bode…what can we say? Miller came into the Winter Olympics as the World Champion, with 5 Gold Medals within reach. But until today, he doesn’t even have a podium finish, much less a Gold.
In his first event on Sunday (Feb. 12), Bode finished 5th (Downhill). On Tuesday (Feb. 14), he straddled a gate (i.e. the pole in the snow went between his legs) on the Downhill portion of the Combined event and was disqualified.

Super-G Gold
Kjetil Andre Aamodt (34) took gold in super-G and defended his previous Olympic gold. This is his third Olympic gold in Super-G and fourth Olympic gold in total. Or 20th medal at Olympics and world championships. Aamodt finished the race with pain in his knee from last Sunday’s Turin Games downhill.
Results
Aamodt won with a time of 1:30.65, .13 seconds ahead of silver medalist Hermann Maier of Austria. Switzerland’s Ambrosi Hoffmann won bronze in 1:30.98.
Congrats, everybody in Norway is very pleased. This is Norway’s second gold medal in this Olympic. Thanks for correcting this very embarrassing gold medal count.

Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister won the Women’s Alpine Skiing Downhill event (1 minute 56.49 seconds).
But perhaps more inspiring was Lindsey Kildow’s eighth place finish. Kildow suffered a horrific crash just two days ago while practicing.
Bothered by the injury, Kildow is understandably dissapointed. “The pain was something I was going to take no matter what…I knew this course inside and out, so it’s disappointing,” remarked Kildow after the event. She described her competitive form as being only “70 percent.”

Dorfmeister all choked up during the Medals Ceremony (Source: NBC)

Although Canadian Kelly VanderBeek had the fastest run at the final training session for the women’s downhill (1:55.23) Tuesday, which determined the order of today’s event … Kelly ended up in 24th position. Here are the Final Results for this event:
Rank / NOC / Skiier / Time (Difference)
1- AUT – Michaela Dorfmeister (1:56.49)
2 – SUI – Martina Schild (1:56.86 / +0.37)
3 – SWE – Anja Paerson (1:57.13 / +0.64)
Results of Canadian Athletes
20 – CAN – Emily Brydon – (1.59.63 / +3.14)
24 – CAN – Kelly Vanderbeek (2:00.30 / +3.98)
26 – CAN – Sherry Lawrence (2:00.47 / +3.98)

According to today’s schedule of events, it looks like it’s going to be a busy day! I would just like to remind everybody that not only is this a group blog .. but according to the b5media site

… We are opening the site up as a true community endeavor.
… We have invited a variety of other networks to participate as well.
So if you want to write about the games, please feel free to register at the site and we’ll get you all setup. Don’t forget to put in your country (”Extended Profile” under “Users”) and a link to your site …read more