Svindal took the first-run lead in the fog and held on to win in 2:25.63, knocking Miller down to fourth place as he leap-frogged over the American toregain the World Cup points lead. Canadian Francois Bourque - 2004 JuniorWorld combined gold medalist and super G junior world champion in 2003 - wasrunner up in 2:25.89 and Kalle Palander of Finland was third (2:26.03).
Miller: "I could have. ... but..."
Miller finished fourth in 2:26.16. Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), the only other American to qualify for the 47-gate second run in the grim conditions,finished 10th. Temperatures were in the mid-20s.
"I felt good and I could have made up the four-tenths [behind Svindal from the first run] but it was so bumpy, and I couldn't see a thing in the fog," Millersaid.
Morin added, "Close but no cigar...and no podium. I'll tell ya, though, those 30 guys in the second run were pretty spectacular. A steep pitch, zerovisibility...and even worse conditions. My hat's off to Bode and Ted, ofcourse, but, really I salute all of 'em. This was so close to being unsafe forracing. if the surface hadn't been so good, we never could have raced.
"When Bode went by me, he was attacking on both runs...and so was Ted; he really puts the screws to it but struggled with some of the terrain changes.
But I could only see four gates, so what do I know? Talking with the othercoaches, they said Bode and Ted were attacking wherever they could and skiingconservatively when they had to.
Morin: "I'll take it"
"Podiums are great, and they're what we want," Morin said, "but we also want everyone to come off the hill safely every day, every race...and I'll take twotop-10s any day, especially on a day like this."
In the first run, which was delayed 30 minutes because of the fog, the gnarly conditions caused 18 skiers - and extraordinarily high number for a GS - tonot finish their run. There were two DNFs on the second run.
U.S. skiers came into the day with nine World Cup top-3s by five athletes in seven races over six days. However, with no U.S. woman on the podium in aslalom in Val d'Isere, France, and Miller's near-miss in Hinterstoder, thehistoric streak ended. During the unprecedented run, five U.S. athletesreached a podium in four disciplines: slalom, GS, super G and downhill.
The men are off until a double-downhill schedule Dec. 28-29 at Bormio, Italy. The 28th is a makeup for the race lost earlier this month in Val d'Isere,France. After 14 races, three U.S. men are in the top 10 overall - Miller (thesuper G leader) is second with 490 points, Ligety is sixth and Steven Nyman(Provo, UT) is 10th overall and second in downhill points.
