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WHISTLER, British Columbia – Give Lindsey Vonn credit. She'll always be a perennial gold medalist in poise and public relations.

When Saturday afternoon had come and gone, the U.S. Ski Team's dominant talent had coasted into a bronze medal in the super-G, and she pressed forward behind a masterful façade. She gave some lighthearted shrugs, allowing just a hint of "gosh darn it" curvature in the corners of her smile. In one breath, she was brutally honest, admitting that she got complacent and tried to win a race without fully pushing herself, likely costing herself a second gold medal in these Vancouver Games. Then she wrapped her logic around the thorns of consolation, insisting a bronze medal is still great, and that "it almost looks like gold."

But Lindsey Vonn was hurt. Anything else you saw on Saturday was for sound bites and sportsmanship. The best super-G racer in the world let a gold medal slip off her neck. And she

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WHISTLER, British Columbia – Sasha Rearick sat in a room in November, names ticking through his mind and then rolling off his tongue. Where the rest of the world was looking at the U.S. ski team and seeing pockets of concern – maybe even full-blown craters – the men's head Alpine coach saw finite potential. Maybe even something special.

"This is not just all Lindsey [Vonn]," Rearick said. "There is a lot of talent, with both the men and women. This could be a very good team. But who is going to show up? Who is going to ski the way everyone expects Lindsey Vonn to ski?"

On Friday, the U.S. delivered an emphatic answer with another two-American podium as Bode Miller took silver and Andrew Weibrecht bronze in the super-G. That gives the Americans six medals in only four races and sets a new standard in U.S. Alpine racing. The medal total surpasses the vaunted 1984 team from the Sarajevo Games, which produced five medals in six races.

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WHISTLER, British Columbia – Lindsey Vonn retreated from the hill looking for an answer. She wanted a description, a video replay, a solid witness – something. And when she found her husband, Thomas, she blurted the one question that could have wrapped Thursday's events with a neat little bow.

"What happened?"

Two events into the women's Olympic Alpine program, the American's Vonntourage might be wondering the same thing. The answer? Vonn simply fell on Thursday. She clipped her ski on a gate in the slalom portion of the women's super combined, suffering a disqualification in the second of her five-race slate.

On the surface, it was simple skiing. Veterans see this on the World Cup circuit all the time. But there is something larger in play here. There is something mythical and lucrative suddenly up for grabs: the title of "It Girl" in these Winter Games. Twenty-four hours ago, Vonn had it locked up, winning gold in the women's

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WHISTLER, British Columbia – Julia Mancuso was standing on the bottom of the mountain, beaming her California smile into a camera lens. On top of her head sat a trademark tiara – an accessory promoting her designer lingerie while simultaneously eliciting eye-rolls inside the U.S. Olympic skiing family. It was a defining snapshot: Princess Mancuso basking in an intimidating lead in the women's downhill event, while the world looked back up the mountain at Lindsey Vonn, waiting for her to once again take the crown from her teammate.

When people look back at Vonn's first taste of Olympic gold, they'll wax eloquently about Vonn's shin injury and her expectations and Whistler's formidable conditions. They'll spin tales of American dominance, with Vonn and Mancuso finishing 1-2 and setting a new standard in the U.S. women's Alpine program. But they'll be leaving out the defining story, about how it was Mancuso who set the stage for Vonn's

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WHISTLER, British Columbia – Late Monday night, a cross section of an Olympic Alpine ski team was tucked in a nook of a cozy Whistler bar. The clock was about to round midnight, and a pitcher of beer in the middle of the table was bottoming out. Outside, the fluorescent glow of a lamp was dappled by a barrage of snowflakes. A coach topped off his beer and looked out a window at the carnage.

"So, what do you think?" a visitor asked, looking for a vote of confidence that the day's next big event – the men's super-combined – would actually take place.

The coach made a sour face and shook his head skeptically. Then he raised his hand to the barkeep, calling for another pitcher. He knew what was coming: Alpine skiing in the Vancouver Games – an event representing a major draw in every Winter Olympics – was on its way to standing down. Again.

A few hours later, word came that heavy snow had forced the cancellation of a women's

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WHISTLER, British Columbia – He's still fluent in monotone, and hasn't lost the ability to simultaneously answer a question while sticking a thumb into an inquisitor's eye. He still doesn't seem all that into Olympic goals, at least not the way other people think he should be. And even when he talks of letting the emotion of the Vancouver Games wash over him, it sounds more like a Monday shower than a religious experience.

But there is no denying Bode Miller's talent.

That much was made clear once again on Monday, when the enigmatic American star took bronze in the men's downhill – his first medal since the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, and his record-setting third Olympic podium for USA in men's Alpine. Miller's effort was about as impressive as a bronze can get, only nine-hundredths behind the gold of Switzerland's Didier DeFago, and two-hundredth's off the silver captured by Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal. Moreover for Miller, it

WHISTLER, British Columbia – The head U.S. women's Alpine speed coach said Saturday night that star racer Lindsey Vonn's health has improved significantly, thanks to an extended vacation lavished upon her by Mother Nature. Now America's biggest skiing draw is ready to make her charge in the Vancouver Games – whenever the elements see fit to let her.

Sunday's downhill training session was canceled, which means Vonn has received a generous five-day reprieve since voicing her concerns about competing with a shin injury she sustained more than a week before the Games were slated to begin. The five additional days will give Vonn almost two full weeks to rest her shin.

"For her, it's definitely not a bad situation to get those training runs [canceled]," said coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "It gives her more rest to heal. She's good – she's ready to go. Even if the training runs wouldn't have been canceled, she would have been fine. But it has been good to give that shin more rest. Maybe it won't

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Four years after the Turin Olympics, Picabo Street can still paint a striking picture of a half-broken Lindsey Vonn. Street can remember sitting in a Turin hospital, looking into tearful eyes struggling through fear and doubt. Cruel momentum had stolen Vonn's body up in a blazing turn during a training run, then mercilessly skipped her like a stone across a frozen mountain. Her back and hips were badly bruised, dwarfed only by a battered psyche.

With the Olympics just two days away, Street arrived to be Vonn's anchor at that moment, and came armed with two gifts. In her hands, she carried a plate overflowing with Italian pasta. And on her lips, she offered the anthem of an entire Olympic ski culture.

Everyone crashes once. Champions dare to do it again.

"I remember her lying there," Street says now, "and it was all so vivid and really crossroad-ish. You just knew it was time to get into hashing out the dangerous stuff. I told her, 'You're going to crash.