Vonn opens super-combined with best time in downhill, slalom coming in afternoon in Vancouver

Vonn off to another strong start in super-combined

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Forget that funky cheese treatment. The best salve for Lindsey Vonn’s aching shin was winning a gold medal.

So imagine how good a second would feel.

Vonn got off to a great start toward adding to her collection by being the fastest in the downhill portion of the women’s super-combined Thursday morning. The slalom is the other half of the combination and it will be held in the afternoon.

“I’m happy,” Vonn said. “It was a solid run.”

Vonn proved she can be the fastest down the mountain in winning the downhill Wednesday. So the slalom will be a new test for her at these Olympics. It’ll also be a challenge for her to simply race twice in one day — and for a third time in two days — considering the bruise in her right shin is “killing me today.”

She said the shin hurts as much as it has since she was injured Feb. 2. She could spend the few hours between events slathering it up with the Austrian curd cheese she’s been using, or maybe adrenalin and the excitement of being this close to winning again will help.

“I’ve struggled a bit with (my) energy level,” Vonn said. “Yesterday was a long day. I didn’t get as much rest as I wanted.”

Vonn’s best friend and top rival, Maria Riesch of Germany, was second fastest, 0.33 seconds behind. She’s also been the top slalom skier on the World Cup circuit the last two years.

“By no means is it over,” Vonn said. “Maria is right on my tail. I don’t know if I can hold her back.”

Downhill silver medalist Julia Mancuso of the United States is third, 0.80 behind.

“I think I could have been a lot faster,” Mancuso said. “It’s really disappointing when you start early and then the sun comes out. I really couldn’t see anything.”

The women’s super-combined is among six medal events being decided Thursday. The other strong chances for U.S. medals are Evan Lysacek in men’s figure skating and Kelly Clark in women’s halfpipe.

Boosted by six medals Wednesday — the best day Americans have had at a Winter Olympics — the United States is comfortably ahead on the overall winners list.

The Americans have 14 medals in 28 events, with five golds. Germany is second in the overall count with 10 and is among several countries with three golds, which also is second best.

In nonmedal action Thursday, the U.S. men’s hockey team faces Norway and the women play Finland, while the men’s and women’s curling squads both seek their first victories in Vancouver.

TV RATINGS

The Olympics is a pretty fascinating talent show, too.

A night after Fox’s “American Idol” drew nearly 4 million more viewers than NBC’s broadcast from Vancouver, the athletes outdrew the entertainers by a whopping 11.7 million in the hour the two overlapped Wednesday night.

Gee, ya think those gold medals won by Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis and Shaun White helped?

It was the first time in six years that “Idol” was topped by a program in its time slot.

RUSSIAN ANGST

They’re not happy in Moscow.

With only a single medal of each color won by Russians going into Thursday’s events, some members of the nation’s parliament are calling for their top sports leaders to resign.

The paltry haul thus far has brought “bitterness and insult,” according to a statement by one government official.

Just playing politics? Perhaps. But remember that the 2014 Winter Olympics are in Sochi, Russia, so there’s more than the usual patriotic pride on the line.

LUGE

Maybe something good already has come from the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

That’s what his uncle-coach thinks.

Back home in Georgia, Felix Kumaritashvili said the lives of other competitors have been saved by the safety changes made in response to his nephew’s death during a crash in training.

The luger’s family says the track was unsafe. Olympics and luge federation officials say Kumaritashvili was late coming out of a turn.