Less of a medal haul for Lindsey Vonn, but still an unalloyed success

Reporting from Whistler, Canada — 

The Vancouver Olympics still have a week to play out, but the “Lindsey Vonn” Games are probably over.

Her legacy and medal count will probably be cemented at one gold and one bronze.

The overreaching Vonn hype entering the Games probably accounted for Saturday’s mild undercurrent of disappointment when America’s skiing superstar finished third in the super-giant slalom.

Vonn skied wonderfully by normal human racer standards but only “OK” by hers.

She was, after all, the defending world champion in super-G and had won three of the five World Cup races run this season.

But it wasn’t the same Lindsey who breathtakingly, in Wednesday’s dramatic downhill, overtook teammate Julia Mancuso with a daring charge on a dangerous track.

“I got content,” Vonn admitted. “That’s why I’m not on the top step.”

Vonn, though, plans to hang her bronze right next to her gold on her bedpost.

The expectations of others were not necessarily hers.

“People were saying I was going to win five medals,” she said, “but I never really bought into that.”

It was an Austrian, Andrea Fischbacher, who skied with desperation. She ransacked Franz’s Run with a winning time of 1 minute 20.14 seconds, a half-second faster than Slovenia’s Tina Maze.

Vonn finished 0.74 of a second off the pace, a distant third by ski-racing time standings.

Fischbacher had the hunger Saturday, having narrowly missed a bronze in the downhill. She was also representing a country that was getting skunked by Uncle Sam in its national pastime.

America still leads Austria in medals, seven to two, but the gold-medal score has been evened at 1-1.

“It is really special to get the medal,” Fischbacher said. “I haven’t been looking at the newspaper or anything, I was just thinking about what I had to do and not thinking what the media was saying.”

You couldn’t blame the Vonn chasers for wanting to pounce on the opportunity.

“She’s always first in World Cup,” Maze said of Vonn. “It’s kind of annoying to be on the start knowing she will probably be first.”

The stars didn’t quite align for the Stars and Stripes.

Mancuso, with two silver medals in her first two starts, drew unlucky bib No. 1. She was first out after the forerunners and soon mishandled the treacherous right-hand turn, Frog Bank. The lost time sentenced her to ninth place.

“I knew when I crossed the finish line I blew it,” Mancuso said.

Her mistake tipped off the rest of the field. Vonn, skiing out of the 17th spot, nailed Frog Bank and cruised a bit too much through the easier lower section. “I stopped charging,” Vonn said.

Fischbacher drew what may go down as the luckiest bib in Olympic history: 19. Maria Riesch of Germany won the super combined with that number on Thursday, while Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal rode 19 to Friday’s super-G victory.

Maze, with the No. 22 start, knocked Vonn to third with her run of 1:20:63.

Vonn nearly got caught from behind by the 30th racer, Italy’s Johanna Schnarf, who finished only 0.11 off the American’s time.

Thomas Vonn, Lindsey’s husband and coach, suggested the more technical and curvy course, set by Austrian Coach Juergen Kriechbaum, was designed to slow Lindsey down.

“I know for a fact the Austrian course setter said he’s setting it against Lindsey, which is kind of silly,” Thomas said. “People have been trying to find little chinks in her armor, and it hasn’t been working.”

Vonn’s influence on the Vancouver Games, and her place in Alpine Olympic history, may have to be weighed against gold and bronze.

She will not be a favorite in the remaining two women’s races: giant slalom and slalom.

“To be honest, I’m not expecting much in the next two races,” Vonn said.

Vonn has been unable to train in the gates since she bruised her left arm in a late-December crash, and the right shin injury suffered in training Feb. 2 only compounds her obstacles.

Vonn got what she came for: the gold in downhill.

“I run a sentence by her when she’s disappointed or if she’s feeling something didn’t go the way she wanted,” Thomas said in the finish area Saturday. “ ‘At the beginning of these Games, if someone told you right now you could have a gold medal and that was it, would you take it, that’s all you get?’ ”

When Lindsey shakes her head “yes,” Thomas says, “then you have to be happy . . . and add a bronze to it.”

Some people watching TV probably expected Vonn to win all of her races.

“That’s not realistic,” Thomas said. “The five-gold-medal [Michael] Phelps comparison, it was never going to happen that way. . . . It would be like winning the lottery.”

Vonn may have to settle for jackpot.

chris.dufresne @latimes.com