Thanks to Tom Kelly for helping
us figure out Lindsey Vonn’s farm
family, which has grown significantly since December 2005,
when she first chose a cow over
cash for her downhill victory at
Val d’Isere. Here’s a look.
Fall 2006: Olympe gives birth
to a female, which Vonn names
Sunny.
Summer 2008: Olympe gives
birth to another female, which
Vonn names Karin after her
younger sister. “At the time, Karin wasn’t too psyched about it,” Vonn said. “But now she thinks it’s
pretty funny. If you’ve ever seen my sister, you’d know she’s not even close to a cow. She’s gorgeous.”
February 2009: Vonn wins both the super G and the downhill at the World Championships in Val
d’Isere. During a victory celebration, in Kirchberg, Austria (now Zell am See-Kaprun), the town gives
her a goat. Vonn names her Laura after one of her triplet siblings.
Summer 2009: Olympe and Sunny both give birth; Olympe has a male and Sunny has a female, and
Vonn names them Don and Shirley after her grandparents. “Shirley grew up on a farm and used to milk
the cows as part of her daily chores,” explained Vonn. “Grandma is very excited to have a cow named
after her.”
December 2009: Organizers report that that there aren’t any cows up for grabs this year — and
Mother Nature cancels the women’s downhill.
Gold: To Sunday River ski resort, celebrating its 50th anniversary this month.
Silver: To four-time Olympic gold medalist
sprinter Michael Johnson for picking up
a new interest: ski racing. In Val d’Isere,
Johnson interviewed coach Sasha Rearick
and racers for a BBC documentary.
MEDALSPLAZA
Bronze: To Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis for lifting the hopes of the Olympic
home-turf team.
Wooden: To recent ski lift and ski hill
accidents. Time for an update.
Check out Julia Mancuso’s sassy new website,
juliamancuso.com. In addition to some creative cartoons
of Mancuso, the site, though still in beta mode, features a
raffle of POC products, a gallery full of photos — not only
skiing, but also Mancuso riding big waves — and the latest
on Mancuso’s new lingerie label, Kiss My Tiara. Hey, where
else are you going to find helmets and half-slips?
The family Jules
DOUG HANEY/U.S. SKI TEAM (JOHNSON); JULIAMANCUSO.COM; STEVE NYMAN; NBC; BRIAN ROBB
No halfsies for Hannah
During a USOC telecon-ference on Dec. 17, 2009,
World Cup women’s moguls champion Hannah
Kearney, who proudly told
reporters of her half-Ca-nadian roots (her mother
grew up in Montreal),
was asked if she would be
willing to cut an Olympic
medal in half and share
with Canada. “I’m sure Canada can do just fine,” she
said in a “no” to the question. “I have to say the U.S.
Ski Team supported me and that is what my ski career has been a result of — the American side of my
heritage.”
Um, both skis are supposed
to go around the pole
Sweet tweets
We came across this photo on
NBCOlympics.com. Hopefully
Casey Puckett’s more forgiving
than us of the odd photo choice.
We love
following
U.S. speed
skier Steven
Nyman on
Twitter.
“I still don’t understand the inspection plate toilets,” he wrote about the
backward johns in Europe. “Any good
reasons?” Then there was the team-bond-ing incident that apparently got a little
slap-happy. “@skifastfish [Erik Fisher]
just rubber band slapped me TWICE, he’s
dead!” Nyman tweeted.
