America's Sweetheart skis to downhill gold medal

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Lindsey Vonn survived a crash course in downhill skiing and emerged with a much anticipated gold medal Wednesday that confirms her as America’s sweetheart at the Vancouver Olympics.

The 25-year-old Vonn, downhill world champion and World Cup leader, beat Julia Mancuso to give the United States a 1-2 finish in an opening women’s Alpine race on a bumpy and icy course that contributed to a string of wipe outs.

Vonn went out 10th and sped down the Franz’s Downhill course in 1 minute, 44.19 seconds, 0.56 seconds ahead of Mancuso. Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl was next, 1.46 seconds back.

“I gave up everything for this. It means everything to me ... It’s awesome,” said the glamorous Vonn, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Olympic preview edition.

The north American media has followed every step of her recovery from a shin injury in minute detail for the last two weeks.

“I dreamed about what this would feel like, but it is much better in real life,” Vonn said. “I can’t stop crying. This is everything that I ever wanted and hoped for.”

The United States moved atop the medal table with gold medals Nos. 4 and 5 later Wednesday when speedskater Shani Davis defended his title in the 1,000 meters and snowboarder Shaun White, aka the “Flying Tomato,” secured back-to-back Olympic gold medals in halfpipe.

Davis finished in 1:08.94 in the last pairing to shave 18-hundredths off South Korean Mo Tae-bum’s earlier time.

White had the halfpipe title wrapped up before his last run, but still improved his score to 48.4 points when he laid down his signature trick, the Double McTwist 1260. Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen won silver, 3.4 points behind, and American Scotty Lago took bronze.

China earned its second gold of the games when Wang Meng easily defended her Olympic title in the women’s 500-meter short track.

In the cross country, Nikita Kriukov picked up Russia’s first gold in Vancouver when he edged compatriot Alexander Panzhinskiy in a photo finish in the men’s sprint, both finishing in 3:36.3. (AP)