San Jose Mercury News, CA
Feb 13 2010
Snow gives Lindsey Vonn and her shin another day of reprieve
By Elliott Almond
VANCOUVER, British Columbia ‘ Lindsey Vonn got another day’s reprieve
Friday when training runs on the women’s downhill course were canceled
because of heavy snow.
The U.S.’s Vonn, a favorite in all five Alpine events, wasn’t sure she
could compete after bruising her shin Feb. 3. The super-combined,
scheduled to be her first race on Sunday, was postponed indefinitely,
with a training session slated instead.
"My shin is feeling about the same as it was yesterday which I
consider to be good news because I skied pretty hard on it yesterday
testing it out," Vonn wrote Friday on her Facebook page. "It could
easily have gotten worse, and it didn’t."
Some are circumspect about the seriousness of Vonn’s injury. Swiss
coach Hugues Ansermoz said, "Today on the hill the girls were saying,
‘I don’t want to hear about (Vonn). We have heard 10 times before that
she was hurt, and she has always come back to win.’ "
Marin connection: San Jose had its Armenian bobsledder. Now Marin has
an Armenian skier.
Novato’s Ani Serebrakian, a sophomore at USF, will represent Armenia
in the giant slalom and slalom Feb. 24 and Feb. 26. She is one of two
members on the country’s Alpine ski team.
Serebrakian, 21, is carrying on a Bay Area legacy from Dan Janjigian
of San Jose, who competed in the Salt Lakes Games for Armenia. She has
never competed in Europe against the sport’s stars but had to earn
enough points on the world circuit to qualify for the Olympics. "It’s
almost too far of a dream to grasp," Serebrakian said.
It certainly is when living four hours from snow. Serebrakian, who
lives in San Francisco, learned to ski at Lake Tahoe when she was 2
and began ski racing at 5.
"I’ve just been a weekend skier," the exercise science major said.
Her father found other ways to train his children. Serebrakian also
was a top tennis player at Marin Catholic High whereas her brother,
Arman, captain of the University of Colorado’s ski team, played water
polo.
"It has been 15 years of waking up at 5 in the morning, just pulling
every type of string to work out," Serebrakian said.
Although she and her brother did well as juniors in the United States,
they decided to switch allegiances in the 2007-08 season. "As
Armenians it would be more meaningful for us to represent our
country," said Serebrakian, whose father, an ear, nose and throat
specialist, immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1979.
Rahlves’ glimmer of hope: Skier Daron Rahlves from Clayton this time
is measuring his recovery from injury in weeks.
Rahlves, 36, was injured in a crash during his opening skicross race
at the Winter X Games on Jan. 31, just days after he was selected to
represent the United States in the Olympic debut of skicross.
Competition begins Feb. 21 at Cypress Mountain. But Rahlves remains at
home in Truckee, going through hours of therapy each day, hoping he
can strengthen his hip enough to compete in his fourth games. "There
is a glint of hope and a chance I could pull it off," Rahlves told The
Associated Press. "It’s pretty much going to come down to the day
before."
U.S. ski jumpers all in: All three U.S. ski jumpers qualified on the
normal hill for today’s first round. The team was led by Peter
Frenette, 17. He was 30th, Nick Alexander (35th) and Anders Johnson
40th.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
