U.S. Is Still Letter Imperfect

It was another of those eye-chart leaderboards in women’s alpine skiing: ITA, CRO, ITA, with three letters conspicuously missing again:

USA.

We have become gracious hosts in these Olympics, especially in women’s alpine skiing, where the once medal-hopeful American team has been reduced to applauding respectfully as officials hand out hardware to foreigners.

It’s not as though races have not been there for the taking.

Italy’s Daniela Ceccarelli hadn’t won a major race before she took off down the Wildflower course in Sunday’s super giant slalom.

Wasn’t she surprised in the end when her time of 1 minute 13.59 seconds was good enough for the gold medal. Croatia’s Janica Kostelic, who won the gold in the combined earlier this week, finished 0.05 of a second behind to add silver to her collection while Italy’s Karen Putzer claimed the bronze with a time of 1:13.86.

“It’s a dream,” said the 26-year-old Ceccarelli, who could not even recall the last race she won on any level.

It’s been a fog for Team USA, which entered the speed events hoping for a medal or two but leaves with a bad case of the shakes and a dose of indigestion.

You had to finger well down the results sheet to find the name of Kirsten Clark, the top American finisher at 14th.

Jonna Mendes clocked in at No. 16, and Kathleen Monahan was 17th.

Mendes said afterward she was just happy not to lose her lunch.

“I was freaked out,” she said. “I’ve never been like that. I was close to throwing up at the start. I was so embarrassed. I was up there and my heart was like [pounding] in my chest.”

Mendes was a rock compared to Caroline Lalive, who is suffering through one of the worst cases of skiing “yips” ever seen.

Lalive, expected to contend for medals in combined and super-G, did not finish her third consecutive Olympic race. She crashed in Tuesday’s downhill, dropped out of Thursday’s combined after missing a slalom gate and went careening off course Sunday only 14 seconds into the race.

Lalive’s problems are largely unexplained and have left the entire team dispirited. She has become more psyched out at the start gate than Shaquille O’Neal at the free-throw line.

Lalive was among four young Americans--Clark, Mendes and Sarah Schleper are the others--who were sent to the 1998 Nagano Games to get valuable experience for Salt Lake.

Through three Olympic events, however, the erstwhile Brat Pack has come up empty, and has even regressed in the case of Lalive, who, at 18, finished seventh in the women’s combined at Nagano.

Now, she’d give anything just to finish a race. Lalive has crashed or not finished in nine consecutive Olympic or world championship starts.

Lalive declined to address her problems afterward with reporters.

As part of a short, Olympic-issued “flash quote,” she said, “The demon in super-G is that you’ve got to give it your all, and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Lalive has certainly been battling her share of demons.

Monahan, her teammate, was asked to describe what Lalive might be going through.

“I can’t even imagine,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. I think all of us realize what a hard time she’s going through. We’re just trying to support her and get her out of this rut.”

Mendes and Lalive are roommates and have been friends since both started skiing at age 6.

Mendes said the skiers’ thoughts have been consumed by the Olympics the last four years.

“Every single day, almost every waking moment, even when I’m sleeping, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and think about it,” Mendes said. “That was last summer, and the summer before that. I’ve devoted so much of my energy toward this and so has ‘Liner.

“It’s devastating.”

With two races next week in Park City and Deer Valley, there is time for the U.S. women to salvage these Games. However, even U.S. Coach Marian Cernigoj admits the Americans will be lucky to post a top-10 finish in giant slalom.

Kristina Koznick is a gold medal contender in slalom, but she skis independently of the U.S. team.

“We can do better than this, that’s for sure,” Cernigoj said. “We planned, there’s no secret about it, for two medals for the entire Olympics. We still have GS and slalom to go.”

The news has been much better for the ski teams from abroad.

Italy scored two medals Saturday and Kostelic, the Croatian, has reclaimed her crown as the world’s best woman skier.

Kostelic, 20, has already undergone five knee surgeries, including three since last spring.

Yet, with the GS and slalom remaining, she has a chance to become the first female alpine skier in history to win four medals in the same Olympics.

“For me it really doesn’t matter,” Kostelic said. “I’ve got two medals, actually I don’t need any more. It would really nice, but it would be maybe too much.”

Kostelic hopes her older brother, Ivica, can join the fun next week when he will be one of the favorites in slalom.

“If he wins a medal, we’re done, man,” Kostelic joked. “We might even give up skiing.”

The American women haven’t yet considered that option, but it was getaway day in Snowbasin.

And the U.S. women couldn’t get away fast enough.