At a U.S. squad reception Tuesday night, while her teammates wore their official team jackets, Street was dressed in a long flowery skirt and white sneakers. Her easy-going attitude is in stark contrast to the intensity of the European skiers. Seizinger, the dominant women's skier in the world this season, blamed the course in part for her disappointing finish. For sure, the course was very soft when I came down. Gerg said the German skiers miscalculated by choosing later starting spots, thinking the course would get icier and faster.
Skiers choose starting positions in the Olympics based on their World Cup rankings.
Sometimes you make mistakes, and this was a big mistake. Dorfmeister came from the 18th starting position to claim the silver medal. She was skiing with a brace on her thumb and a specially designed glove, having injured her thumb in a World Cup downhill this season. Meissnitzer raced from the fifth starting position. Kirsten Clark of Raymond, Maine, slipped near the top of the course and did not finish.