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February 19, 2010

Weibrecht claims Olympic bronze

Lake Placid's Andrew Weibrecht finishes 3rd in super-G at Vancouver

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WHISTLER CREEK, B.C. (AP) — Lake Placid's Andrew Weibrecht, who teammates call the War Horse, skied the race of his life Friday to capture the bronze medal in the men's super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

It was another banner day for the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, as Bode Miller added a silver with a breathtaking run.

Miller roared through the top section of the course, going up more than two tenths on Weibrecht, the early leader from the third spot. Miller lost some time on the Coach's Corner — a steep, sweeping turn toward the end of the course — but held on to nudge his teammate out of first by .02 seconds.

"The first 30 seconds, I was absolutely cutting off the line, the maximum I could do, and made no errors," Miller said. "I got bounced around a little bit. When the snow changed on the bottom, I ran into the same problem I did in the downhill.

"I thought I would have been fifth or sixth, but when you look at the times, I easily could have been. This is as close as any race I've seen between second and fifth or sixth place."

In fact, just .12 seconds separated second and seventh place in icy conditions that tripped up many of the top contenders.

For a long while, it looked as though Miller and Weibrecht might finish 1-2. But Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, starting No. 19, eight places after Miller, trailed the American by 0.30 second at the first time split but made up the difference and had a 0.02 lead at the halfway point. He extended his lead along the bottom half of the course.

The big Norwegian was clocked at 71.3 mph at a speed check where Miller went through at 62.7 mph.

Weibrecht's early pace came as a surprise to those looking at his past results — where 11th in Kitzbuehel, Austria, the last two seasons stood as his best performance in an elite super-G.

"I haven't ever come down leading a race," Weibrecht said. "I figured I would stay in there until 10 guys came down. But I kept staying in there."

The 24-year-old wasn't without mistakes, either, falling off his line and scrambling to make a gate, but he kept his poles out front and never relented.

"Coming into this (the Olympics), I was just hoping to put down runs that I could be proud of and do the best I could every single run," he said. "That's why I was disappointed with the downhill so much because I felt I could have skied a lot better. Today, I don't think I left a whole lot in the tank. I gave it everything I had."

Teammate Ted Ligety (19th; Park City, Utah) said he wasn't surprised by Weibrecht's sudden star turn.

"He's been so fast for so long before," Ligety said. "His technique is rock solid. It's actually been more of a surprise that he hasn't been better earlier. I feel like today just shows what he is capable of, and maybe that will spark him to do better on the World Cup day to day."

The U.S. Alpine Team's six medals are the most it has ever won in a single Games.

"That's incredible that we came out firing so hard, especially in a year, particularly on the men's side, where we haven't had a whole lot of podiums or wins," Weibrecht said.

"There isn't a guy on this team that's worked harder and made more progress because of that work than Andrew," a coach said. "At summer camps in New Zealand and Chile, this guy was making progress every day and he continued that through the World Cup season. Keep an eye on Weibrecht in Vancouver."

— Sports Editor Bob Goetz contributed to this story.
Growing up in Lake Placid, he was with the New York Ski Education Foundation at Whiteface from the age of five. His race training began five years later. He would go on to make the U.S. Development Team with the 2003 season and be named to the C Team for '05. He also raced at the 2004, '05 and '06 JWCs (where he concluded his Junior Worlds portfolio with a bronze medal in super G).

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