ROSA KHUTOR, Russia // With one eye fixed on the Olympics, Tina Maze has struggled this season.
But her plan to peak in the Caucasus mountains was validated in style with her second Sochi victory for Slovenia on Tuesday.
Again, it was close. Braving heavy rain and fog, Maze edged Austria’s Anna Fenninger by 0.07 seconds in the giant slalom, having led by half a second after the first leg.
Last week, she was involved in the first Alpine skiing tie at an Olympics, clocking exactly the same time as Dominique Gisin of Switzerland in the downhill.
The overall World Cup winner in 2013 had a long victory drought this season and, in an attempt to turn things around in January, she hired former Swiss women’s team head coach Mauro Pini to replace Walter Ronconi. Later that month, she won her first World Cup race, the downhill in Cortina, an indication that her form was coming back at the right time.
“This season’s plan was to show my best here at the Olympics, so my focus in training was the Olympics because I wanted to get here in the right shape,” Maze said, sporting big snow-flake earrings after the race. “I didn’t have the right motivation in the season and you can’t ski like that. But here I’ve shown my passion to compete.”
Falling to the ground and making swimming movements after her victory, Maze said she was happy despite the rain.
“I have dreamt about a day like this, even though it is raining,” she said. “I feel proud. I think I will realise what I have done many years later.”
Maze has always been her own person.
When, in 2012, skiing officials confiscated her racing underwear following complaints from Swiss rivals, who suspected her of gaining an aerodynamic advantage from plastic components, she made her thoughts known in her own fashion. Maze unzipped her ski suit in the finish area at the Italian resort of Cortina to reveal a white sports bra with the words “Not your business” written across the front.
“It’s incredible for Tina,” said Victoria Rebensburg, who claimed bronze after pneumonia meant she could not train for two months. “She hasn’t had a great season, so it’s particularly nice for her to be at the top.”
And she is not done: Maze has another chance to win a medal in Friday’s slalom – her fifth race.
“I was ready for this, it’s what I came here to do,” she said. “The rest of the season doesn’t matter.”
Back at the ice rinks in Sochi, Canadian figure skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir questioned the loyalty of their long-time Russian coach after losing their Olympic title to their training partners.
Virtue, 24, and Moir, 26, lost their title on Monday night when Meryl White and Charlie Davis gave the United States their first title in the discipline.
Both couples train together at the same rink in Detroit under former Soviet ice dancer Marina Zoueva.
Moir said at times he and Virtue felt that they were no longer the focus of the Zoueva’s attention, particularly after she missed their nationals to join Davis and White at the US championships.
“She’s not in any easy position ,” he said. “My mom’s a figure skating coach, and she always says to me, ‘You know she [Zoueva] can’t win, no matter what’ ... well, you know, she does win no matter what.”
In the women’s bobsleigh competition, Summer Olympic medallist Lauryn Williams’s transition to ice was going nicely.
Williams, serving as the brakeman on USA-1 with driver Elana Meyers, held a comfortable lead of .23 seconds over the Canada-1 and USA-2 sleds after the opening pair of runs.
Williams, who won a gold at London 2012 with the United States 4x100-metre relay team and a silver at Athens 2004 in the 100-metre sprint, is competing at the Winter Olympics at the suggestion of fellow track athlete turned bobsleigher, Lolo Jones, who is partnered with Jazmine Fenlator in USA-3 and sit 11th.
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