Are: Paerson wins super combi, Mancuso silver

Anja Paerson proved unbeatable on home snow again, winning the women's super combined Friday at the World Championships for her second medal of the week. Julia Mancuso finished second for the Americans' second silver of the championships, with Austrian Marlies Schild third thanks to a super-fast slalom run. [Click here to view a photo gallery of images from race day in Are]   
    Paerson led the morning downhill leg then was solid in slalom for a winning two-run time of 1 minute, 57.69 seconds. Mancuso, third in the downhill leg, was .81 back, Schild .85 back.
    Lindsey Kildow, second in the downhill portion, skied out midway through her slalom run. Kaylin Richardson was a solid 12th and Resi Stiegler also did not finish the slalom. [Click here for SR's updated medals table and medalists]

ARE, Sweden — Anja Paerson proved unbeatable on home snow again, winning the women's super combined Friday at the World Championships for her second medal of the week. Julia Mancuso finished second for the Americans' second silver of the championships, with Austrian Marlies Schild third thanks to a super-fast slalom run.
    Paerson led the morning downhill leg then was solid in slalom for a winning two-run time of 1 minute, 57.69 seconds. Mancuso, third in the downhill leg, was .81 back, Schild .85 back.
    Lindsey Kildow, second in the downhill portion, skied out midway through her slalom run. Kaylin Richardson was a solid 12th and Resi Stiegler also did not finish the slalom. [Click here for SR's updated medals table and medalists]
    ''It's pretty cool,'' said Mancuso, who feels pain when she skis slalom ever since she had hip surgery in the offseason and also has a shin problem. ''In the slalom you never know how it's going to go. I gave it everything I could and had a good run. But Anja was too far ahead so I just tried to get silver.''
    Paerson, 25, now has six World Championships gold and eight total medals.
    ''This season was hard for me in slalom. This was the hardest race of my life,'' said Paerson, who has struggled this season following knee surgery. ''The snow was so aggressive.''      
    Paerson was winless this season until she won the gold medal in the super G on Thursday.
    "Everybody remembers how my slalom has been this year, it’s been fast but it’s been out," Paerson said. "So I wanted to come down in a good way, and the slope today was perfect for the downhill but in the slalom it was very, very difficult to find the right adjustments. I’ve never been so nervous, I think."
    Paerson now has World Championship medals in every event but downhill. She acknowledged that winning the downhill is a big goal and one she can almost taste. The race is Sunday.     
     "It looks too good to be true for me," she said. "I'm leading by a second in the downhill so I'm getting a little bit nervous because it’s too good to be true. You cannot think it will just come to you, you have to work for it. For sure I'm going to work my hardest and maybe I'll have that day in my life. I'm just going to do my best to find it."
    Austria's Schild was only 10th after the downhill leg but earned the bronze despite a big mistake in the slalom.
    ''At the finish I was thinking that wasn't a medal, the same thing I thought after the downhill leg,'' Schild said. ''I wasn't perfect at the end of the slalom. Maybe that's where I lost the silver.
    ''But I'm happy with the bronze. It's always good to start the championships with a medal.''
    Kildow, who sat second after the downhill, made a mistake midway down the slalom which threw her off her rhythm. After that, the American was thrown about on her carving skis the rest of the way down.
 ''I knew I had to go all out in the slalom,'' said Kildow, who is stronger in the speed events. ''I was really pushing it and I just lost it.
    "In slalom things can go wrong so quickly. I’m just really disappointed because I know I had it if I would have just finished."
    Kildow said she was exhausted and planned to skip the women's final downhill training session on Saturday before the glamor race on Sunday.
    Stiegler went off course in the slalom following a panicky incident just before her run.The 21-year-old American lost her bib after the downhill leg and was unsure whether she would be allowed to race the slalom but was eventually given the go-ahead by FIS race director Atle Skaardal.
    ''I lost my bib after the downhill. It was a little confused,'' Stiegler said. ''I was going so quick. I just got mixed up in that quick combination.''
    The women's combined is more open at these championships with reigning Olympic and world champion Janica Kostelic taking a year off with health problems. The Croatian won combined gold at the last two worlds and the last two Olympics.
    Paerson and Schild finished second and third at the last worlds in Bormio, Italy, two years ago and then switched positions at the Torino Olympics last year.
    Paerson now has six World Championship titles and a total of 13 major championship medals. That's even more than Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who collected seven major championship medals, including two Olympic and three world titles.
    ''For me it's just putting my name next to [Kjetil Andre] Aamodt, Ingemar and Pernilla [Wiberg]. They are great skiers. They are my idols,'' said Paerson, who comes from Tarnaby in northern Sweden — the same Arctic town as Stenmark.
    Aamodt has the most major championship medals in history with 20, while Wiberg collected nine.
    Paerson now has world championship titles in four of five disciplines, and is missing only a downhill gold to complete the set.
    She looks like she could win that too, after posting the fastest time in the morning's downhill portion of the combined event.
    Before the championships, American Bode Miller stated he was aiming for the same record. However, he needs a slalom title to complete his collection and that is the discipline he struggles most in.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's super combined, Are, Sweden, Feb. 9, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
2 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
3 Schild, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Zahrobska, Head/Head/Tyrolia
5 Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
8 Bent, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Zuzulova, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Brydon, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon 

Women's super combined, Are, Sweden, Feb. 9, 2007. … It is the fourth race of the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. … It is the 67th combined event held at a World Championship, the first two having been in 1932.
    It is the sixth World Championships gold for Anja Paerson, her first in combined and her second of these championships in two women's events. … She has previously won one slalom (2001), two GS's (2003 and 2005) and two super G's (2005 and 2007). … It is her eighth World Championship medal, putting her in a tie for sixth on the all-time medal list. … She tops the Swedish national list. … It is her second World Championships medal in combined, having won silver in the event in 2005. … Paerson was first in DH, sixth in SL. … She had never won a championship, Olympic or World Cup combined previously, having completed three Cup combined events, each time in second place. … She was third in the 2006 Olympic combined.
    It is the third World Championships medal for Julia Mancuso, the other two bronze medals from the 2005 GS and SG. … She is tied for third on the U.S. all-time medal list behind Bode Miller's five and Tamara McKinney's four. … Picabo Street, Christin Cooper, Billy Kidd and  Daron Rahlves match her total. … Mancuso was second in DH, fifth in SL. … She had been seventh in combined in the 2003 worlds, and ninth in 2005. … She placed ninth in combined at the 2006 Olympics and 13th in 2002. … It is her second combined podium, having won a World Cup at Zauchensee previously this season. … She is the 11th American to win a World Championships medal in combined. … McKinney won three, bronze in '85 and '87 and gold in '89.
    It is the third World Championships medal for Marlies Schild in six career completed title event races. … It is her second bronze medal in combined. … She was also third in 2003 and fourth in 2005. … She won the silver medal at the 2006 Olympics. … Schild was eighth in DH, first in SL. … She has two third place and one win in combined on World Cup. … The win at Reiteralm this season and one of the thirds at Zauchensee in the only other combined of this World Cup season.
    It is the third top 10 in World Championships for Emily Brydon, one of those in the 2005 team event. … She was seventh in combined in 2001. … And 13th in combined at the 2006 Olympics. … She has placed as well as third in combined on the World Cup, at San Sicario on Feb. 27, 2005. … It is the first World Championships result for Kaylin Richardson … She placed 17th in the event at the 2006 Olympics. … It is her best combined result, eclipsing a 15th in World Cup at Reiteralm earlier this season. … It is the first combined result at World Championships for Britt Janyk. … She was fourth in SG earlier in this championship. … Her best of four World Cup combined results was fifth, at Are, in 2002.
    Winning margin is .81 of a second. … Top three are within the same second. … Top five within two seconds.

Medal count:
AUT 4 (2s,2b)
SUI 3 (1g, 2b)
SWE  2g
USA 2s
ITA 1g

Are World Championships women's super combined results

Did not start:
WEIRATHER Tina (LIE), RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina (SPA), HALTMAYR Petra (GER), FANCHINI Elena (ITA)

Did not finish:
STIEGLER Resi (USA), ALCOTT Chemmy (GBR), STECHERT Gina (GER), GISIN Dominique (SUI), ACTON Brigitte (CAN), HUCKOVA Eva (SVK), MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie (FRA), MAZE Tina (SLO), RUBENS Shona (CAN)

Disqualified:
KRISTJANSDOTTIR Dagny L. (ISL), FANCHINI Nadia (ITA), KIRCHGASSER Michaela (AUT), KILDOW Lindsey C (USA)