2014 Olympic Alpine Skiing: Preview and Predictions for Women's Super Combined
The super combined is a smoothie of a competition mixing two of Alpine's most challenging disciplines into a mountain blender: downhill (sometimes interchanged with super-G) and slalom. Athletes ski a single run of each, and the fastest aggregate time wins the gold.
In some ways, the super combined goes to the best overall skier, someone who can navigate the car-speed of the downhill and the precision knee-stressing turns of slalom.
In the final World Cup of the season leading up to Sochi, it was Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon who shocked the Alpine world by besting Maria Hoefl-Riesch, the world's top-ranked skier, in Austria.
It was Gagnon's ability to take advantage of her opponent's mistakes in the slalom portion of the super combined that led to her victory. Each athlete must bring focus, balance and precision to each half of the competition to come away with a medal.
Read on to find out who should win, who could win and the skier who may just shock them all.
Schedule, TV and Live Stream Info
1 of 5
The women's super combined takes flight Feb. 10 at 2 a.m. ET with the downhill portion. The slalom starts at 6 a.m. ET.
The games are streamed live on NBC's official website. Check your local listings to find out when you can catch the action on television, tape-delay style.
Top Storylines
2 of 5
What's best? Coming in hot or being the overall No. 1?
There's something to be said for peaking at the right time, and Marie-Michele Gagnon of Canada could be that skier. Her win in the last World Cup event in Austria signaled that the favorite—Maria Hoefl-Riesch—doesn't have the super combined sewn up.
Hoefl-Reisch is No. 1 with a bullet in the overall rankings, but slipping to third in that last World Cup isn't ideal in the penultimate competition before the Sochi Games.
Is Austria too much to handle?
Austria may have the best overall hand in the super combined with four skiers who could medal. Anna Fenninger was the 2011 World Champion in the super combined. Add to that Nicole Hosp, Michaela Kirchgasser and Elisabeth Goergl, and that's four of a kind the world would just as soon avoid.
Who will carry the U.S. flame?
The fan favorite for Team America will no doubt be Julia Mancuso. She was on the cover of Outside magazine, after all. Didn't work out so hot for Lindsey Vonn, as her cover essentially cursed her in 2014. It's science.
Mancuso was a silver medalist in the super combined in Vancouver, but it will likely be Mikaela Shiffrin who has the best shot for America. She's best in slalom, and if her downhill reaches anywhere close to that, she could strike.
Athletes to Watch
3 of 5
Anna Fenninger
It's hard to ignore a former World Champion in the super combined, and Fenninger fit that bill in 2011. She's the third-ranked overall skier in the world behind only Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Tina Weirather. And the only one she has to worry about on that short list is Hoefl-Riesch.
Maria Hoefl-Riesch
As hard as it is to ignore Fenninger, Hoefl-Riesch is the defending World Champion in the super combined and the defending gold medalist from the Vancouver Games. NBC has her as the No. 4 skier to watch, but given her credentials, she is clearly the one to beat.
Tina Maze
Slovenia's Tina Maze has competed in the super combined just once since Oct. 26, 2013 and that was a sixth-place effort in the World Cup. Two World Cups ago, she won the downhill, so she will, without question, be in contention.
Marie-Michele Gagnon
The Canadian's win in the super combined against Hoefl-Riesch and Michaela Kirchgasser was a shock to many. According to Eric Willemsen of the Associated Press (via the Toronto Star), after winning, Gagnon said, "It’s amazing. I was quite surprised."
"I didn’t expect that after the first run," she said. "I knew I had to do a really good slalom run to be on the podium. I just tried to do my best and it looks like the pieces of the puzzle have come together."
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Who Are the Sleepers?
4 of 5
Mikaela Shiffrin (USA)
She won't be a sleeper in the slalom, but adding a downhill to the mix makes Shiffrin—the sixth-ranked skier in the world—an outsider in the super combined. But she's young and she's an unsung threat in the SC.
Julia Mancuso (USA)
She won the silver medal in the 2010, but a lot can happen—like aging—in four years. Mancuso is 20th in the world and basically out of her league with the major contenders in the super combined. That age does carry with it some experience, and that's what makes her a sleeper, not to mention a fan favorite.
Nicole Hosp (AUT)
Perhaps this Austrian isn't a sleeper so much as a contender, but her slip from first to fourth in the last World Cup puts her on the edge of the podium here. With teammates like Anna Fenninger and Elisabeth Goergl pushing you, it makes you a threat by virtue of who you have to contend with just to make the team.
Michaela Kirchgasser (AUT)
She finished second in the last World Cup run up to Sochi. She climbed from 20th after the super-G in that event, so, like Shiffrin, she's a star on the slalom course.
Complete Medal Predictions
5 of 5
Much of this preview centered around this wacky, wild idea that Maria Hoefl-Riesch was, in some ways, in downward form. She did finish third in her last event to a woman who had never won the event before. But here's the thing with champions: They save their best for last.
They know when to turn it on and when to coast. Hoefl-Riesch is the world's best overall skier, and the super combined is the type of event that rewards the best overall skier. No sense in getting creative here.
Gold: Maria Hoefl-Riesch (GER)
Silver: Anna Fenninger (AUT)
Bronze: Nicole Hosp (AUT)
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
