The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 12, 1998 - 15A .Street wins surprise gold in closest-ever women's super-G HAKUBA, Japan (AP) - Picabo Street, the master of the unexpected, pulled off her biggest surprise yet - an Olympic gold medal in an oh-so-close women's super-G. :Street, a downhill specialist coming back from knee surgery and a crash in late January, was the second racer to come down the hill sterday and then watched in amazement as e world's top super-G skiers failed to catch her. . I don't Naao1 9 believe what I'm seeing," she exclaimed in the finish area, then, pumped her fist 4nd screamed in delight as favorite Katja izinger of Germany was unable to beat her ;'ime. ,The silver medalist in the 1994 Olympic downhill, Street finished in 1:18.02 to edge iichaela Dorfmeister of Austria by an astoundingly close one hundredth of a second. Alexandra Meissnitzer won the bronze medal. Sizinger was sixth. ;The seven-hundredths of a second separat- ijU the top three skiers made it the closest fin- lsh. in Olympic'history. The previous tightest sh among the medal winners was nine undredths of a second in the 1992 women's downhill. The closest 1-2-3 men's finish was one tenth of a second in the 1992 men's downhill. "I made a mistake about midway through the course;" Street said. "It made me mad and I just went for it." Seizinger, the dominant women's skier in the world for the past two years, blamed the course, in part, for her sixth-place finish. "For sure, the course was very soft when I came down," Seizinger said. "But I cannot blame only that for my defeat. I expected Picabo to do well on this course. She's quite crazy and can be very good, especially in one- day races" The race was run in picture-postcard weath- er - a clear blue sky serving as a backdrop to snow-covered mountains. It was the first Alpine medal awarded in the Nagano Olympics, which have been plagued by snow- storms that postponed several races. It was the first time Street had ever really skied the course. She missed a 1997 World Cup downhill on the Hakuba slopes while recovering from left knee surgery, but skied down the mountain on the back of U.S. assis- tant coach Andreas Rickenbach. That run allowed Street to visualize the race - some- thing she's replayed hundreds of times in her head during the past year. "I've waited a long time to be able to attack the course;' she said. And it paid off handsomely. "It's unbelievable," she said. "I don't have so much pressure on myself in super-G. I think sorfle of the other people expect more of them- selves in super-G than I do." Street's comeback nearly was derailed on Jan. 31 when she crashed in a World Cup downhill race in Are, Sweden, leaving her bruised, sore and with headaches that still bothered her on the eve of the Olympic super- G. On top of that, Street thought she was doomed when she drew the second starting spot in the race. With all the recent snow, there was a good chance of the course getting faster as skiers pushed off fresh snow. "I was really bummed about it, because it didn't look like a very good start number," she said. "But I'm happy about it now. It was the best start number in the world." Street, the free-spirited leader of the U.S. women's ski team, is far different than most of her peers. At a U.S. squad reception Tuesday night, while her teammates wore their official team jackets, Street was dressed in a long flowery skirt and white sneakers. Her easy attitude is in stark contrast to the intensity of the European skiers. "What happened here today is going make Katja (Seizinger), Martina (Ertl) and Hilde (Gerg) very angry," she said, referring to the three German skiers, who placed sixth, sev- enth and 10th. Street is the second straight American to win the women's super-G, following Diann Roffe's gold medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. Roffe, who is a TV commentator at these Olympics, was at this race. Dorfmeister came from the 18th starting position to claim the silver medal. Meissnitzer raced from the fifth starting position. Dorfmeister was skiing with a brace on her thumb and a specially-designed glove, having injured her thumb in a World Cup downhill earlier this season. Kate Monahan of Aspen, Colo., finished 29th in 1:20.25. Jonna Mendes of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., was 32nd in 1:20.35. Kirsten Clark of Raymond, Maine, slipped near the top of the course and did not finish. AP PHOTO Downhill specialist Picabo Street recovered from a frightening crash in January to win the womens' super- G, finishing one hundredth of a second over Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister. i S, Nagano 1998 medal count Nation G S B Total Germany 4 4 4 12 Norway 2 2 3 7 Russia 4 3 0 7 Austria 0 2 4 6 inland 2 1 2 5 Italy 0 3 1 4 Japan 2 1 0 3 Canada 1 1 1 3 United States 2 0 1 3 etherlands 1 1 0 2 Czech Rep. 0 1 1 2 Bulgaria 1 0 0 1 France 1 0 0 1 Ukraine 0 1 0 1 Snowboarder tests positive fr marijuana TORONTO (AP) -- Ten years after the Ben Johnson scandal, the Nagano Games were sup- posed to be Canada's best Olympics ever. But dismay replaced pride when news broke that the country's new snowboarding hero faced losing his gold medal after drug tests turned up traces of marijuana in his system. "It's a bit like deja vu and a nightmare all over again," Canadian Olympic Association chief Carol Anne Letheran said. But if Canadians felt betrayed by Johnson, they rallied behind snowboarder Ross Rebagliati. "No one's angry or embarrassed," said John Wells, editor of the twice-weekly newspaper in Rebagliati's hometown of Whistler, British Columbia. "If anything, they're quite protective of Ross." Rebagliati was a front-page national hero Monday after winning the first-ever Olympic snowboarding event. le was back on the front pages yesterday, and the focus of virtually every TV and radio news- cast, as Canadians tried to absorb the bad news. "Gold medal gone to pot'?" blared the tabloid headline on the Toronto Sun. Even at Parliament in Ottawa, the debacle was topic No. 1. Opposition leader Preston Manning, whose right-wing Reform Party has a tough anti-drug stance, took a pro-Rebagliati position. "We shouldn't give up that medal without a fight," he said. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, whose portfo- lio includes the Olympic program, declined com- ment pending the outcome of a Canadian appeal of the disqualification. Should the appeal fail, Rebagliati would join Johnson as the only other Olympian to lose a gold medal because of drug tests. Johnson was stripped of his medal and 100-meter world record in 1988 in Seoul for using the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Rebagliati told Canadian officials he hadn't used marijuana since April 1997, but was in close contact with marijuana smokers on Jan. 31 in Whistler, before he left for Nagano. Many Canadians were outraged that Rebagl tati faced the same penalty as Johnson even though marijuana, unlike steroids, is not considcei a drug that improves performance. "Pot doesn't affect your performance it's like alcohol," said Alex Taylor, editor of a Calgary snowboard magazine. "If he had tested positive for drinking, no one would say anything." In Whistler, Canada's trendiest ski resort town, Rebagliati's friends said they still planned a big welcome-home party next week. "My plan is to go ahead with everything, regardless," party organizer Graham Turner said. "Ross has still got the gold to everyone. in Whistler. lie just might not be on the cover of the Wheatis box." Rebal iati and Johnson are not the only top Canaan athletes ensnared by drug tests. Olympic ower Silken Laumann, who was even- tually exonerated, lost her gold medal at the 1995 Pan American Games after using an over-the- counter decongestant that contained a banned stimulant. Four Canadian weightlifters selected for the Seoul Olympics were disqualified. They went so far as to try duping drug testers by insertiig another person's urine into their bladders. Two Canadian weightlifters were disqualified at the )84 los Angeles Olympics for steroid use, H eading into the Nag ano Games, Canadians were hoping for their biggest medal haul ever at a Winter Olympics, up from 13 in Norway four years ago. But problems arose almost as soon as the tear arrived in Japan, when French-speaking athletes from Quebec felt slighted by the almost exclusive use of English at an official welcoming reception. Ken Warren, president of the Canadian Olympic Assoeition, felt compelled to apologize after the gaffe created a furor in Quebec. 1.. bi IF Roo," ." c ., ' "'.4 big technology. Intelligent test programming enii- ronments. High speed digital instrument,. Next generation superchips. And more. leradyne is your source for innovation, quality and leadership in Automatic est Equipment, complex connection systems and telecommunications and software test. 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