CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy -- Defending overall World Cup champion Tina Maze finally got her first victory of the season, winning the prestigious Cortina
downhill Saturday to signal a return to form just in time for the Sochi
Olympics.
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down the Olympia delle Tofane course, which was bathed in sunshine, then
performed her trademark handstand celebration during the podium proceedings.
"There were a lot of emotions," Maze said. "It was a really long time. ... When
I find the right feeling like I found it today I can ski fast." Marianne
Kaufmann-Abderhalden of Switzerland finished second, 0.27 seconds behind, and
Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was third, 0.38 back. Maze had a record-breaking
season a year ago with 11 wins. This season, she had only three podium results
-- until this race. "When you win a lot you dont learn much," Maze said. "With
my ups and downs its a lot of learning." Two weeks ago, Maze made a staff change
in her personal team, which is run by her boyfriend and coach Andrea Massi. They
replaced Walter Ronconi with former Switzerland coach Mauro Pini. The switch
seems to have paid off and the timing couldnt have been better -- in the final
downhill before the Sochi Games, where the womens downhill is scheduled for Feb.
12. Pini urged Maze to put more emotion into her skiing. "That was really good
because Andrea was always saying to ski without feelings," Maze said. "But
sometimes thats not possible. "(Pini) brought a lot of peace to our team because
compared to Andrea and I hes one step in front of us," Maze added. "And thats
what we were expecting from someone in that position. He came really motivated
and that makes us easygoing and we have more energy for ourselves." Pini was
formerly Lara Guts personal coach and he led the Swiss mens squad at the 2010
Vancouver Olympics, when Didier Defago won gold in downhill. He then coached the
Swiss womens team and more recently was a TV commentator. "I could sense a good
feeling from the first words we shared with each other," Pini said. "Tina never
forgot how to ski. She was always capable, she just needed to focus her energy
better and get rid of those negative vibes." "At this level a couple different
words here or there can create all the difference," Pini added. "Its not like we
had to start over from scratch." With the skies perfectly clear to show off the
jagged peaks that provide some of the most spectacular scenery in the Dolomite
Range, Maria Hoefl-Riesch finished fourth to follow up her victory in Fridays
downhill. The German said she felt some pain in her left knee after landing a
jump awkwardly a day earlier. Still, Hoefl-Riesch maintained her lead in the
overall and downhill standings. In another strong showing from the U.S. Ski Team
without injured Lindsey Vonn, Stacey Cook matched her fifth-place finish from
Friday and teammate Julia Mancuso placed seventh to match her best result of the
season from a super-G two days earlier. "It always stings when you are so close
to the podium, but I know this is a positive move heading toward Sochi," Cook
said. This was the third of four races in four days. Elisabeth Goergl won a
super-G on Thursday and another super-G is scheduled for Sunday. Weirather
finished fourth and second in the opening two races this week. "Its hard to have
four good races in a row but I will try," she said. Two of the races were
originally scheduled for last weekend in Cortina but were wiped out by heavy
snowfall. The other two were moved from Garmisch-Partenkirchen due to a lack of
snow in the German resort. The womens circuit then moves to Kranjska Gora for a
giant slalom and slalom next weekend -- the final races before Sochi and Mazes
home event. "Im really excited to ski that slope," Maze said
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to force Game 7 in their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final series. SOCHI,
Russia -- The ashes of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke were spread in the
Olympic halfpipe, high on a mountain above it and also near the Olympic rings in
the athletes village. Burke, considered a pioneer for the introduction of
halfpipe and slopestyle into the Winter Games, died following a training
accident in Utah in January, 2012. Freestyle coach Trennon Paynter from
Squamish, B.C., says he distributed the ashes in the halfpipe prior to the
competition. "That was a little bit of a stealth mission," Paynter said
Saturday. "I feel pretty good about knowing Sarah was all over these Olympics in
our hearts and quite literally too." Burke was a four-time X Games champion and
a driving force behind the inclusion of both halfpipe and slopestyle in the
Sochi Olympics. She spent her early years in Barrie, Ont., but was living in
Squamish when she died. Burke competed against men until there was a womens
event. A leading contender for gold in Russia, she died at age 29 two years
before her sports introduction into the Winter Games. Paynter went alone on a
gondola as high as he could on the mountain above Rhosa Khutor Extreme Park to
leave some of Burkes ashes there. The urn he carried was also in a freestyle
team picture at the Olympic rings in the athletes village. Prior to the start of
womens freestyle halfpipe Thursday at Rhosa Khutor, volunteers slid down the
course in a heart-shaped formation in memory of Burke "This event really, I
feel, had Sarah at the core of it in so many ways," Paynter said. Australiian
snowboarder Torah Bright, who won Olympic halfpipe gold, in 2010 was incensed
the International Olympic Committee would not allow her to wear the "Sarah"
stickers on her helmet and snowboard that she sports in other competitions.
Raptors Hats. "The sticker
thing for us was really no big deal," Paynter said. "We knew the way the
protocols worked here. We knew for a couple of years we wouldnt be wearing
stickers here. The rest of the season, I have Sarah stickers all over my stuff."
Burkes husband Rory Bushfield and Paynter are friends and the two had discussed
a plan to bring her ashes to the Winter Games in Sochi. The Canadian Olympic
Committee provided a glass container and Paynter carried the container in a
leather holster with Burkes name on it. During a quiet moment on the first
training day, Paynter was able to "poach a couple pipe laps." "I know Sarah
wanted to get some hits in the pipe so she got those," he said. The freestyle
skiers won seven medals in Sochi and the most by one sport on the Canadian team.
Canada also won a pair of medals in ski cross and while the international
governing body of skiing considers it a freestyle discipline, Alpine Canada
administers it domestically as a speed sport. Although the Canadian women
finished off the podium in halfpipe, Mike Riddle of Sherwood Park, Alta., took
silver in the first mens event. "Shed just be thrilled with everything from Mike
winning a medal to the women just performing at such a high level," Paynter
said.
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