ITALY: Triple Olympic champion Kostelic misses women's downhill training while Austria's Dorfmeister is fastest.

Record ID: 331951

  • Title: ITALY: Triple Olympic champion Kostelic misses women's downhill training while Austria's Dorfmeister is fastest.
  • Date: 14th February 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE UP OF FLAGS PAN TO SKYLIFT AND PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW1DZMIGP0NATL38KNWGVTGHE
  • Story Text: Triple Olympic champion, Croatias Janica Kostelic missed training on Tuesday (February 14) for Wednesday's women's downhill due to a high pulse.
    She looked tired and spoke in feeble voice on Monday during an interview at the Croatia house in Sestriere.
    When asked if she was under pressure for having to defend three gold and one silver medal, she said: "This time it's different because I am one of the favourites. Before the last Olympics I didn't have good results in the World Cup, so that's a little different. We will see."
    She skied this morning and then did the course inspection but up at the start she felt that her pulse was too high and she returned to the apartment where she is being checked, Croatian team spokesman Ozren Muller said on Tuesday.
    Kostelic is competing in all five Alpine ski disciplines at the Winter Games and is defending the gold medals she won in Salt Lake City four years ago in slalom, giant slalom and combined.
    Like Kostelic, Sweden's Anja Paerson is an all-rounder, and she is also the defending World Cup overall winner who triumphed in last season's downhill and super-G races on the Olympic slope.
    Paerson looked in great shape both on San Sicario slope and during an evening stroll in Sestriere on Monday night.
    When asked what she thought of the slope she said: "I think it's a good downhill. It's very technical, has huge jumps. It's not the steepest or the fastest race that we have, but it is still very technical and very difficult."
    Austria has a strong team, Renate Goetschl, Alexandra Meissnitzer and Michaela Dorfmeister are all capable to seizing the gold medal.
    Goetschl said she found the slope and the snow in San Sicario to be in the best possible condition for a good downhill race.
    "I can say the snow is very good and the piste is in a really good shape, one of the best shapes that you can have. I think it's a good downhill. They changed some things compared to the last year and I think it is more interesting that we have more bumps and have more to do and I think that is what must be in a downhill, not just gliding," she said.
    Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister had the best time at both Monday;s and Tuesday's training, and looked set to crown an outstanding final season with her first Olympic gold medal in Wednesday's womens downhill at the Turin Games.
    The 32-year-old has been the top speed performer this season after announcing her intention to retire from the sport.
    The Austrian, who also has a realistic medal hope in Sundays super-G, has already clinched the World Cup downhill title and has 10 podium finishes from the season's 13 speed events.
    Dorfmeister won a silver medal in 1998 when she finished the super-G
    01 seconds behind U.S. winner Picabo Street but so far gold has eluded her.
    She said the slope in San Sicario was difficult but interesting. "The jumps are all difficult, there are some parts, some jumps where you land in a flat part. In some parts there is some icy turns and it is very bumpy and you can go really on the outside of the skis and in the air, but I think for the downhill, for the girls downhill, it's very good," she said.
    Alpine ski organisers have redesigned the Fraiteve course to make it more difficult after racers complained last year at a World Cup event that it was not challenging enough.
    At just over three km, the course is the longest on the womens circuit.
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