Are: Hank's Handicap: Women's super G

"Phoenix from the ashes," is what the Austrian Press Association says about the addition of Christine Sponring to the team roster. The one time phenom has, the APA reports, more injuries than achievements on the resume.
    Sponring is just one of the intriguing story lines surrounding what is now the opening event of the 2007 FIS World Ski Championships at Are, Sweden.

"PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES," is what the Austrian Press Association says about the addition of Christine Sponring to the team roster. The one time phenom has, the APA reports, more injuries than achievements on the resume.
    Sponring is just one of the intriguing story lines surrounding what is now the opening event of the 2007 FIS World Ski Championships at Are, Sweden. Seems like the Austrians always provide a good story line. Alexandra Meissnitzer isn't a bad one. At 33, she has already said this is her last season. Her statistics this season would say she might have lost a step. Over her career she has 14 World Cup wins, seven of them in super G. She owns three World Championships medals and three Olympic medals, including a bronze from the 2006 super G. But she has not been on a podium this season. She said she had doubts she'd make the Austrian four-women team. Coaches said she got the nod because of experience.
    Anja Paerson is another. Paerson has already done enough to make herself a legend. She is top 10 on the all-time World Cup win list. Surgery in the off-season appears to have slowed her more than she might have liked, and any hope for another World Cup title is all but gone. She is racing at home and has taken some to time for rest. Gamblers don't make their living betting against legends.
    Renate Goetschl has to be the primal favorite. There have been five super G's this season. She has won three and not missed the podium. She is a guaranteed medal.
    Four of the story lines for women's super G are North American, Lindsey Kildow is second on the current SG standings, Julia Mancuso is fourth, Kelly VanderBeek is fifth and Britt Janyk sixth.
    A month ago, a couple of Janyk's best result had come at Are. She finished fourth in both of the San Sicario SG's held last week — her best career finishes. She's 26, out of West Vancouver and Whistler; is a 10-year veteran with six seasons of World Cup experience, and she's never skied better than this season.
    VanderBeek sent the world's media scrambling last season when she won the final training run for the Olympic downhill. This season that media has kept their notes handy as she has been in the thick of the run for the super G title since placing third in the opener.
    Mancuso has been riding a rocket sled since winning the Olympic GS last season, claiming five podiums in successive races in January. She was first and second at two Cortina's super Gs. Her first World Cup podium was just last season and her first win this year, but she is within one victory of leading the World Cup overall standings and has been thrust into a favorites role.
    Kildow would like to put the middle of this season behind her with DNFs in two downhills and a super G. The World Championships are the perfect opportunity to do that. The level of her skiing is such that she is still in contention for either of the World Cup speed event titles.
    And then there is Sponring. In 2001, while still a junior, she was inserted into the World Championships combined and surprised nearly everyone with a medal. Since then she has not won a race, getting knocked back by injury repeatedly. She has just five results this season, but two of them are podium placings in the two super G's at San Sicario. No question her coaches are taking a gamble entering her over Kathrin Wilhelm or Silvia Berger. But they gambled on her in 2001 also, and it paid off.