Tough Out of Gates for U.S.

The wind may not be blowing America’s way yet in the Olympic Alpine events, but it’s definitely blowing.

With 3 1/2 events completed in the mountains, the United States has one medal, Ted Ligety’s gold in combined, with possibly more windchill to come.

Severe winter weather turned Friday’s women’s combined event upside down.

High winds forced the postponement of the shortened downhill in San Sicario Fraiteve after one racer, Croatia’s Nika Fleiss, took off on a jump and almost got flipped upside down by a gust.

They ran the slalom, as scheduled, in the snow under lights at Sestriere and will attempt to complete the downhill portion today.

Here’s how it looks for the U.S. after the slalom portion: not good.

Lindsey Kildow, who finished eighth in Wednesday’s downhill two days after a horrific training-run crash, couldn’t make it through her second slalom run, skiing out after getting too far back on her skis and losing control around a gate.

“I can’t ski the way I want,” she said in the finish area. “It’s so frustrating.... My back hurts so bad.”

Resi Stiegler, who finished ninth but has virtually no downhill experience, is hoping to tap into what Ligety was drinking.

“I really think I can do it, just like Ted,” she said.

Julia Mancuso is 11th, 3.38 seconds behind with a short downhill to go and a lot of time to make up. Kaylin Richardson is 15th.

Marlies Schild of Austria is the combined leader after the slalom with a two-run time of 1 minute 21.22 seconds, but few are expecting it to hold up.

Kathrin Zettel, also Austrian, is third, but you can pretty much throw that one out too.

The race is between Croatia’s Janica Kostelic, second after the slalom, and Sweden’s Anja Paerson, who is fourth.

Schild and Zettel aren’t strong downhill skiers, and Kostelic and Paerson are the top two all-around female skiers in the world, having won four of the last five World Cup overall titles.

The combined is an event that adds the times of two slalom runs and a shortened downhill run.

Paerson won the Olympic bronze in downhill Wednesday and has been regularly beating Kostelic in training runs. Pencil both in for medals, with Paerson having the edge for gold, especially with Kostelic complaining of various ailments.

“I definitely don’t feel well,” the three-time Olympic gold medalist said. “I feel really bad. There’s no reason to compete while I’m feeling like this.”

America?

Well, it has been one of those weeks, with low turnout beating high expectations.

It started Sunday, when Daron Rahlves and Bode Miller failed to medal in the downhill. It got worse Monday when Kildow crashed. Ligety pulled off a huge upset by winning gold in combined, but the U.S. lost a second medal when Miller was disqualified for straddling a gate.

Mancuso and Kildow had top-10 finishes in Wednesday’s downhill, but nothing near a medal.

The men have two more medal chances with Miller and Rahlves in today’s super-giant slalom at Sestriere Borgata, and Mancuso and Kildow should be contenders in Sunday’s women’s super-G.

That is, if Kildow is able to race. Asked as she limped away from Friday’s slalom whether she would be able to ski again in the Olympics, Kildow said, “I hope so.”

Mancuso won bronze in super-G and giant slalom at last year’s world championship, so there are medal opportunities.

How many is another question.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Assn. set a target goal of eight Alpine medals in Turin. Its motto is “Best in the World,” a flag that actually should fly over Austria House.

“It’s a goal,” Bill Marolt, chief executive of the U.S. organization, said of the motto this week when he was taking some heat after the men’s downhill. “Like any goal, it’s not easy.”

As for winning eight medals in these Olympics?

“Let’s add them up in the end,” Marolt said.