Maria Riesch looked unstoppable in the women’s Slalom today at Whistler Creekside.

Not even blizzard conditions could stop her from walking away with her second gold of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The German finished with a combined time of 1:42.89, finishing 0.43 seconds ahead of her closest rival, Marlies Schild of Austria. Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic took home the bronze and became the first Czech Alpine Skiing medallist in Olympic history.

It was another tough day at the office for the race favourite Lindsey Vonn. Two days after she crashed out in the giant slalom, the American straddled a gate a third of the way down the course.

When asked about Vonn, Riesch thought that her confidence coming into the slalom was “not so good, because she didn’t finish many runs.”

“She did a great Games here,” Reisch said. “She killed the downhill.”

The conditions didn’t only trouble Vonn, but most of the field as they seemed to struggle with the heavy snow and flat light, as 31 of the 86 starters failed to complete both of their runs. Riesch however, didn’t seem to have a problem.

“I have problems with bad slopes and hard tracks and today it just worked,” she said.

“You shouldn’t let it influence you too much. You shouldn’t think about it too much. You just have to go. Just try to do your best and the conditions are the second thing.

Riesch became only the third German skier to win two gold medals in the same Olympic Winter Games. The others were Katja Seizinger in Nagano 1998 and Markus Wasmeier in Lillehammer 1994.

The completion of the slalom now sees all women’s alpine skiing events finished for the Games. Riesch will go home with gold’s in the Slalom and super combined. Her German teammate Viktoria Rebensburg won the Giant Slalom and Andrea Fischbacher of Austria took out the Super-G.

Tom Read
AOC - Whistler