Super G, Women1

Heavy snow forced this event to be postponed one day. Germany’s Katja Seizinger was a heavy favorite, having won the World Cup Super G for four straight years (1993-96), and leading the race in 1997-98. The second starter was American Picabo Street. A true power skier, Street had won the 1995 and 1996 World Cup in downhill, and was silver medalist in the 1994 Olympic downhill. But on 4 December 1996, she crashed badly in Vail, breaking her left femur and tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the same knee. She took a full year to recover, not returning to the World Cup circuit until December 1997, only two months before the Nagano Olympics. Street’s Super G run in Nagano was finished in 1:18.02, which moved her into an early lead. Other top skiers came down but none could match Street’s time. Seizinger was off 11th but her German trainers had misjudged the snow and waxing, and she would finish only sixth. Two Austrians finished 2-3, Michaela Dorfmeister and Alexandra Meissnitzer, with Dorfmeister, off unseeded in 18th position, missing Street’s time by only 0.01 seconds.