That left the women’s GS, and again the weather played another card. It
rained hard overnight, causing widespread flooding in the region. A thick
fog began to develop, particularly for the second run.
Several skiers complained that visibility, both from the fog and rain droplets on the goggles, made the rutted track dangerous and many expressed
relief at the bottom for having successfully negotiated the run.
The danger did not faze Julia Mancuso. She had arrived only Monday
after racing in an Xtreme competition in Verbier, Switzerland, where she
placed third after leaping cliffs and trying to find the most appealing route
down an intimidating raw mountain course.
Mancuso laughed off the idea that the track was dangerous, saying: “It’s
no different than what we had at the Olympics. There was a lot of fog
there.”
The Verbier race she said, was intimidating. The national GS race was
merely uncomfortable.
“Actually the course turned out to be OK,” said Mancuso. “The surface
was pretty good after all that work they put in this morning. “ She said the
fog was definitely thicker toward the bottom of the course than at the top,
and it did call for taking a swipe at her goggles partway down to clear the
moisture from the lenses. “It’s hard to do, you know,” said Mancuso, “but
it worked a little bit.”
The victory was her 11th national title, which eclipsed a 55-year-old mark
of 10 held by Andrea Mead Lawrence. Mancuso had no idea that she had
accomplished such an historic feat at Whiteface.
Taking second on the day was Laurenne Ross while Sweden’s Malin Hem-mingsson, a University of New Mexico three-time NCAA slalom champ,
was third.
Top junior on the day was Canadian Erin Mielzynski, who was also the
slalom junior champ. Julia Ford was the second junior on the day in 13th
place and Foreste Peterson, a J2 skier, was the third junior across the finish in 18th.
