Daily Updates — Live from Nagano

Men's Super G Color Commentary by Martin Bell [click for audio]

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Transcribed from Audio:
After bouncing over the fence during the men's downhill, the new Austrian superstar, Hermann Maier, bounced back with an emphatic victory in the men's Super G three days later. On a bumpy course that was extremely icy after heavy rains followed by freezing temperatures, Maier, who is known as the Herminator, put on a display of powerful technique. He took the gold medal by a career margin of over half a second, despite mist on the upper part of the course. Austrian Hans Knauss and Swiss Didier Cuche finished in a tie for the silver medal, just as there had been a tie for gold in the bobsled the previous day.

This underlined the current domination of the Austrian ski team in the men's event but provided a surprise boost for the Swiss, whose fortunes have steadily declined during the 1990's. Italy's Fattori and Norway's Aamodt placed fourth and fifth. The US ski team produced a solid performance with California's Daron Rahlves in seventh, just ahead of Alaska's Tommy Moe, whose eighth place shows he is at last rediscovering his form just in time for next year's World Championships at Vail, Colorado.

Hermann Maier attributed his speedy recovery to acupunture and the two day delay due to bad weather which also helped him. Now his confidence is riding high once more, the Herminator is undoubtedly favored for Wednesday's Giant Slalom.

— Martin Bell, Mountain Zone International Correspondent