Sports Thread #1 For 2/18/10: Olympic Update- Riesch Takes Gold In Super Combined As Vonn Crashes

Photo from Reuters' Leonhard Foeger

A second consecutive medal wasn't to be for Lindsay Vonn, as a crash in the latter stages of the super-combined prevented her from reaching the podium. But even an accident free run wouldn't have stopped her close friend and rival Maria Riesch from winning the gold medal in this event today.

The German claimed the top spot with a fabulous run:

Riesch had a total time of 2 minutes, 09.14 seconds to beat Julia Mancuso of the United States by 0.94 seconds. Mancuso got her second silver medal after being runner-up to Vonn in the downhill. Anja Paerson of Sweden took the bronze, 1.05 behind Riesch.

The event's winner sure did face her moments of adversity

Riesch, who trailed Vonn by 0.33 after the downhill run Thursday, punched the air and pressed her hands to her goggles in delight when she saw her time. She came into the games as the biggest threat to Vonn's predicted domination of the women's Alpine events but was a disappointing eighth in the downhill, and had an anxious moment in the downhill leg of the super-combined Thursday. She got too much air in a small jump before the halfway point and veered momentarily off course before correcting her race line.

Another wonderful moment that certainly won't be captured on NBC is how Dutch star skater Sven Kramer:

More to come later in the night.