Julia Mancuso of Lake Tahoe Finishes 8th in Sochi Downhill

Super combined bronze medalist Julia Mancuso of Lake Tahoe led the U.S. Ski Team with eighth in Thursday's Olympic downhill as Dominique Gisin of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia made history with a tie for gold. An Olympic medal tie has happened four times since 1948 in alpine skiing, but before today, had never happened for a gold medal.

"I caught a lot of air off the first jump and it kind of caught me by surprise," said Mancuso. "That made me a little bit nervous for the rest of the run. I changed my plan a little because there was some more terrain and it did not work. The snow was just a little softer, but I'm more of an instinct skier and I just thought too much today. I didn't let go and let my body do it's thing. I wasn't as on it as I was in the super combined. This hill is tough and really difficult to stay focused on the whole run, but that 's what separates the champions from the rest of us on race day.
I am disappointed with my skiing, I made some big mistakes. I would like to have another chance, but it's over. I have to move on to my next event."

The Squaw Valley skier, who has 4 Olympic medals so far, will race again on Saturday in the Super G. The rest of the American finishers were Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR) finished 11th, Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) 17th and rookie Jackie Wiles (Aurora, OR) 26th.

The women’s downhill will be featured on NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage Wednesday Feb. 12 at 7:00 p.m.