Super-G showing could dictate the rest of Lindsey Vonn’s schedule

It might be over-the-top dramatic -- like the launching-pad jump on the women’s course known as “Hot Air” -- to suggest that Saturday’s super-giant slalom at Whistler Creek will be Lindsey Vonn’s last appearance of the Olympics.

It would be conjecture to think that Vonn, once considered a five-medal threat, will bow out after the super-G, perhaps with her second gold, forgoing next week’s giant slalom and slalom.

The thinking: Why endure more excruciating pain from her bruised right shin in the two events in which see is least likely to win a medal? The giant slalom is the only World Cup discipline in which Vonn has never finished in the top three. She has two career slalom victories, but injuries of late have greatly diminished her ability to train.

The easy answer: This is the Olympics, and there is no way Vonn will skip any events.

NBC certainly hopes not, and U.S. Coach Jim Tracy says there’s “not a chance in the world.”

The real answer, though, rests with how Vonn comes through Saturday’s super-G on “Franz’s Run.”

“I’m not looking that far ahead at this point,” Vonn said after she skidded out in the slalom portion of Thursday’s combined. “I’m just looking forward to Saturday. I’ll see how it [the shin] feels. I don’t want to say I’m racing and make any assumptions before I know how I’m feeling.”

Despite her shin injury, Vonn will be the odds-on favorite in the super-G, a hybrid of the downhill and giant slalom. Vonn leads the World Cup rankings in the event after winning three of five races this season.

Her shin injury has not slowed her in the Olympic speed events. Vonn won the downhill and posted the fastest time in the downhill portion of Thursday’s combined.

Vonn’s main competition in the super-G should come from the advertised contenders: Maria Riesch of Germany, winner of the combined, and Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl, who won bronze in the downhill. And never count out six-time Olympic medalist Anja Paerson of Sweden, who rebounded from a nasty crash in Wednesday’s downhill and won bronze in Thursday’s combined.

The most intriguing contender, though, will be American Julia Mancuso, who has won two silver medals in Whistler.

Mancuso has proved that her struggles in the last year were a bad barometer to predicting Olympic success. Mancuso ranks 20th in the world in the super-G, but it’s obvious the course at Whistler fits her like a ski glove.

Mancuso has two medals, so far, to Vonn’s one gold, but she isn’t worried about who is getting more press.

“She deserves the attention,” Mancuso said of her longtime rival. “I do think the ski team in general deserves a little more attention, because a lot of the media is all about Lindsey. I think we have a lot of great girls on the ski team.”

chris.dufresne@latimes.com