Winter Olympics

Chemmy finished in the top twenty again - Image courtesy of BOA

The Ladies' Super-G took place on Saturday 20 February and it was a constant battle for top spot until Andrea Fischbacher stormed the course and took the lead by almost half a second.

Team GB's Chemmy Alcott had an early start, second in the running after American Julia Mancuso set what looked like a beatable time.

Alcott was nearly two seconds off the pace though and looked disappointed with her run, failing to gain inspiration from Amy Williams' fantastic gold in the Skeleton the previous day.

Mancuso, who already has two silver medals in The Games, held onto top spot until Maria Riesch of Germany, who had taken gold in the Combined event, skied faster to move into the gold medal position.

Reisch's stay at the summit was short-lived though, as birthday girl Elisabeth Goergl recovered from a shambolic start to set the new time to beat.

All eyes then turned to American Lindsey Vonn, tipped for five gold medals before The Games began but coming from the Super Combined event she failed to finish.  There was no doubting Vonn's pedigree though, as she skied the perfect race to take the lead by 0.26 seconds.

Any who thought the race was over though hadn't accounted for the collective will of a nation, as an inspired Andrea Fischbacher skied the race of her life and beat Vonn by a whopping 0.74 seconds to put Austria into the gold medal position.

Vonn's disappointment was made worse when Slovenia's Tina Maze stole the silver medal, beating the American's time by a quarter of a second.

For the second time, the Super-G course caught many of the racers out, with 15 of the women not finishing, the same number who failed to finish in the men's event the previous day.

Chemmy Alcott, in her strongest event, has certainly skied faster, as her shake of the head showed. Nonetheless, she eventually finished inside the top twenty for the third time in the games, to go along with her 13th place in the Downhill and 11th in the Super Combined event.