Surprises and records in Olympic Alpine Skiing

Despite some weather related delays and rescheduling of events, all ten Alpine ski competitions were successfully carried out. It was mainly thanks to tireless efforts by organizers and volunteers that fantastic Alpine races were held albeit in challenging course and weather conditions. Some of the races were incredibly close and all of them were exciting. Gold medals were distributed among a mixture of overwhelming favorites and fresh faces.

On the ladies side, it was the fourth straight Winter Games that one female took gold in at least two of the five Alpine events. In Nagano 1998, Germany's Katja Seizinger was downhill and combined champion. Legendary Janica Kostelic of Croatia took even three medals home from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games in slalom, giant slalom and combined whilst Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister won the downhill and super-G at Turin in 2006.

At the Vancouver Olympics, Maria Riesch of Germany earned two golds, those in super combined and slalom. Her close friend and rival Lindsey Vonn left the Vancouver Games with a gold medal from her signature downhill event and the bronze in the super-G. Slovenia's Tina Maze garnered two impressive silver medals in super-G and giant slalom, while American Julia Mancuso added two silvers in downhill and super combined to the giant slalom gold from Torino to become the most decorated U.S. female skier in Olympics history. Last but not least, Elisabeth Goergl of Austria grabbed two bronze medals, one in downhill and one in giant slalom. In the end, 10 of the possible fifteen medals went to these 5 ladies.
The top individual male performers at the Vancouver Games were Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal and American Bode Miller. Both skiers earned a complete set of medals in Whistler, Canada.

Miller, the two-time silver medalist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games won gold in the 2010 Olympic super combined, silver in the super-G, and bronze in the downhill. After he did not train all summer until late September 2009 he did not know if he would be competing this season, The talented skier had his head in the right place this time, having fallen way short of expectations at the 2006 Games, Bode delivered in true Miller style and the 32-year-old went from zero to hero by becoming only the fifth man in Olympic history to win medals in four of alpine's five disciplines and his five career medals also sets a record for American skiers.

27-year-old Svindal, started the Games in prime form winning super-G gold and downhill silver. He was on his way to what could have been a medal-winning run in super combined before crashing out with the finish line in view. But he showed that he can also succeed in technical disciplines by winning bronze in the giant slalom, behind his team-mate Kjetil Jansrud who claimed silver.

Switzerland's were the only men's team to claim two golds, with Didier Defago winning the coveted downhill title and Carlo Janka dominating the giant slalom. Sylvain Zurbriggen underlined the strength of the Swiss men earning bronze in the super combined, whilst he pre-Games favourite Didier Cuche who travelled to Canada with a broken thumb suffered at the final FIS World Cup days before the Games, left Vancouver empty handed.

The German ladies, won the Alpine medals ranking with three golds. Maria Riesch's success in the slalom and combined was expected but more of a surprise was Viktoria Rebensburg in the giant slalom.

The Americans turned in their best alpine skiing performance in Olympic history. Split evenly between the men's and ladies teams, the eight medals for the United States doubled the next closest nations, traditional powers Norway and Austria with four.

Meanwhile the Austrians, normally the powerhouse of skiing, have not finished on the podium in any men's races. The last time their men left empty-handed was in 1936.

They did come very close - Benjamin Raich, Mario Scheiber and Marcel Hirscher all finished fourth in their events - demonstrating the small margin between success and failure at the Olympics. Whilst the ladies can be satified with the gold medal of Andrea Fischbacher and Elisabeth Goergl's pair of bronzes.

Some of the fresh faces who shook-up the order included Italian Giuliano Razzoli, winner of the slalom, the country's only alpine medal. He has only won one World Cup race before and had led another after the first run before blowing it in the second leg so he was determined not to do that on the most important stage of all.