Are: Versatile U.S. women set for super combi

The women stage their second race of the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Friday when they run the super combined, the first time the women have competed at worlds in the event, which was introduced on the World Cup in 2005.
ARE, Sweden — The women stage their second race of the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Friday when they run the super combined, the first time the women have competed at worlds in the event, which was introduced on the World Cup in 2005.
    Head coach Patrick Riml said the U.S. Ski Team will run four women — Julia Mancuso, super G silver medalist Lindsey Kildow, Resi Stiegler and Kaylin Richardson. In the last World Cup super combined Jan. 14 in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Mancuso won, with Kildow second and Stiegler fourth.
    Kildow and Mancuso — both 22 — are two of their sport’s premier all-rounders. Stiegler and Richardson have moved well beyond their traditional slalom strengths and are developing quickly into multi-event racers.
    In Thursday’s second training run, it was a near repeat of the super G: Swedish star Anja Paerson, gold medalist in the SG, had the fastest time and Kildow was second-fastest with Mancuso seventh.
    U.S. SKI TEAM NOTES: Reigning moguls world champion Nate Roberts and Scott Rawles, U.S. moguls head coach, were among the cold-blasted spectators at the men’s super combined. The two are in the Are region to participate Saturday night in a moguls exhibition event on a slope above the town — not far from the race arena — as part of a so-called New Generation Events program.
    The freestyle World Cup used to stop each winter in Hundfjaellet, Sweden, but the last time came in November 1999 — with a moguls and dual moguls weekend in Tandadalen.
    Bode Miller, who led the downhill but struggled in the slalom portion of super combined Thursday, said he would skip DH training Friday. Head coach Phil McNichol said, “It’s probably a good move to take a day off. He’ll be busy Saturday with the downhill.” Miller is the defending DH gold medalist from 2005 worlds in Bormio, Italy.