Skiing

It wasn't supposed to end this way.

But with all of the news about contracts, holdouts and lockouts, all of the boutique dogs, fancy cars and multimillion dollar homes, it’s sometimes hard to understand what goes on behind the scenes in the lives of professional athletes.

It’s hard to understand that some of them have problems just like the rest of us.

***

U.S. Olympic aerial skier Jeret Peterson died last Monday. He was 29 years old.

The Vancouver 2010 silver medalist called 9-1-1 before killing himself in a remote canyon between Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, just several days after being cited for drunken driving in his home state of Idaho.

Known as “Speedy” because of a huge helmet he wore as a kid at a Lake Placid, N.Y., ski camp that reminded one of his coaches of "Speed Racer,” Peterson’s emotional problems were far from juvenile.

He suffered from serious depression, and he had ongoing problems with alcohol, both of which no doubt stemmed from his being sexually abused as a child and the death of his 18-year-old half-sister—when he was just 5—in an accident involving a drunk driver. In 2005, Peterson watched in horror as a friend committed suicide in front of him, an incident described in vivid detail in a Men’s Journal interview 18 months ago. Peterson's first suicide attempt came in September of 2007.

But despite his rough 29 years, people who knew Speedy recall him fondly.

"The entire Olympic family is heartbroken to hear the news of Jeret ‘Speedy’ Peterson's untimely passing," U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. "I know Speedy's friends and family were incredibly proud of his effort in Vancouver, and his achievements were an inspiration to people all over the world. The personal challenges Speedy has battled are familiar to all of us."

"It's a big blow to all of us," Tom Kelly, vice president of communications for the United States Ski & Snowboard Association told The (Park City) Park Record. "He was not only a great athlete, but a great friend."

Billy Demong, a fellow U.S. Olympian who had trained with Peterson said, "He's a really nice guy; he's been a good friend. I know that he's had a roller coaster of a journey."

Fellow U.S. Ski Teamers and friends took to Twitter last week to express their horror at what happened and to offer up anecdotes of great nights spent with Speedy.

I, too, got to know Speedy a bit, though it’s overstating the matter to call him a friend.

It was October of 2005 in Colorado Springs. I was working for USA Today and I was on a U.S. Olympic Team press junket at which we and other media outlets had the opportunity to interview many of the athletes set to wear the red, white and blue at the Winter Games the following February in Turin, Italy. We got the chance to talk to Apolo Ohno, Sasha Cohen, Joey Cheek and Hannah Teter, among others.

Speedy was on the docket as well. Like many of the other Olympians-to-be, he was a sweet kid, happy to be there, excited at the opportunity to show off his skills on and above the snow on the world’s stage. I asked him about his notorious “Hurricane” jump: a groundbreaking five-twist, three-somersault maneuver—all "while flying as high as a five-story building"—that had never been attempted, much less landed in competition. He hoped to get the chance to give it a try in Turin.

Later that night, after grabbing dinner with some co-workers, I made my way back to the hotel and stopped at the bar for a drink. My co-workers and I saw Speedy and a couple of friends sitting in a corner, and we went over, re-introduced ourselves and joined them.

Our group chitchatted for a couple of hours, discussing the upcoming Games, what the pressure was like up at the top of the ramp waiting to jump and about how little the Olympic athletes were paid.

He was fun, incredibly kind and friendly and just seemed like a good, down-to-earth guy.

Maybe this is a case of hindsight being 20/20, but it seemed as if Speedy also had a darker side. And there was some bitterness and sadness underneath the happy-go-lucky exterior.

But all was perfectly pleasant, we wished each other luck and went our separate ways.

Several months later in Turin, Speedy came out with a vengeance, and I was happy to follow along and root him on from afar. I didn’t attend the aerials event, but I watched with interest from a closed-circuit TV in our office at the press center.

After his first jump in the final round, he was in third place—medal contention. All he needed was a solid jump on his second attempt to earn a place on the podium.

But simply going half-assed to keep his place on the medal stand wasn’t what Speedy had in mind.

As Aimee Berg of Men’s Journal writes:

“Just one more to go, and the pressure was on: Nail the Hurricane, and he’d be a hero. Fail, and his high-risk decision would forever be second-guessed. He could opt for an easier trick, but easy had never made sense to Peterson. There was no question what he’d throw.”

He skied down the ramp confidently, raised his arms in the air and took off. He twisted, he turned: “one twist on the first backflip, three twists on the second, and one more on the final backflip.” As he neared the ground, his landing looked to be in good shape.

But "his momentum caused him to over-rotate the last flip,” wrote Berg. “Amazingly, he landed on his skis—but his hand grazed the ground. Goodbye, gold medal. Hello, seventh place.”

Critics said he should have played it safe and walked away an Olympic medalist. But that wasn’t Speedy’s game.

'That's not me,” he later told The Deseret News. “I want to be known for pushing the envelope. In aerials, it's go big or go home."

Little did he know that he’d soon be heading home—prematurely and ignominiously.

The night after his event, Speedy reportedly had his first drink in six months, got drunk and got into a skirmish with a childhood friend outside a bar, punching him in the mouth. Though he immediately apologized, he was picked up by Italian police and was on a plane headed home within 24 hours.

Of course, the media ate it up.

“A lot of people saw his story and said he must be a wild jackass and a cowboy,” said longtime coach and friend, Matt Christensen. He must be just another spoiled athlete. What a horrible representative of our great nation, chimed the cynics.

Few were able to appreciate the behind-the-scenes issues that had played such a major role in Speedy acting out. And a subsequent bankruptcy, along with continued issues with drinking and gambling, did little to quell the naysayers.

Amy Donaldson of The Deseret News recalled Peterson discussing with her his troubled past prior to the 2010 Vancouver Games.

"He was so honest," she said. "I talked to him about being extremely hard on himself. He was cognizant of the fact, and knew it wasn't normal thinking. What we would see as a success, he would see as a failure."

But Speedy again overcame his demons to qualify for the 2010 Games. Again, he was considered a serious medal contender.

And again I watched from afar.

This time, on the wet Pacific Northwest snow, he landed his Hurricane. He finished in second place and tears streamed from his eyes on the medal stand as the silver was placed around his neck.

"I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life,” Peterson said that night, “and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything. There's light at the end of the tunnel and mine was silver and I love it."

It was a fairytale ending.

“In Vancouver, he became one of those epic Olympic tales of redemption that draw us to the television sets. His road ahead would be so much better now,” wrote brilliant USA Today columnist Mike Lopresti last week. “Isn't that how the rest of the story is supposed to go?”

Speedy said he’d quit drinking back in 2010. He had enrolled at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and was working on his degree as he reportedly took aim at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

But clearly things were far from perfect. Cited for drunken-driving the Friday before, last Monday night, he made a harrowing call to 9-1-1 telling them where he was and that he was going to kill himself.

Moments later, he did. Authorities found a suicide note near his car.

***

Depression can be a horrible thing.

For some people—even the most successful and most beloved of athletes and celebrities—there comes a time when nothing can make you forget the difficult things you’ve experienced in life: not drugs, not alcohol, not World Cup wins, not an Olympic medal, not even the love of family and friends.

And there are more people than we know with these kinds of problems. Some, too, are athletes, as Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall would now attest.

For some, there’s not enough hope or promise to keep fighting through it all, to keep pushing, to keep jumping.

"I know people who struggle with depression," said Donaldson, who cried when hearing of Peterson’s death last week. "I see them winning one day, and the next day, they're losing. Now, Speedy is a cautionary tale."

RIP, Speedy. You’ll be missed. I hope there’s a place in the eye of that Hurricane where you’re able to finally escape those demons.

And let’s hope that other people stricken with similar demons—whether they’re athletes or not—get help before it’s too late.

Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn has slammed ski organizers in Germany, posting a scathing review of unsafe conditions at a World Championship event in a small Bavarian mountain resort on her Facebook wall.

Vonn, the most successful American female in ski racing history, said she was "shocked and disappointed" at the icy conditions at the FIS World Cup race in Arber-Zwiesel, and she questioned whether the sport's governing body had any concern for athletes' safety.

Vonn, who was honored as the United States Olympic Committee's sportswoman of the year for 2010, called the hill a "bumpy ice rink" and predicted crashes throughout the rest of the competition if conditions do not improve.

Ironically, the top story on the FIS (International Ski Federation) website this morning is a good-PR news story about the research work the organization is doing with the University of Salzburg to improve racing conditions.

Snow conditions were identified as one of the five main injury risk factors, according to a panel of 63 World Cup experts involved with the Injury Surveillance System project.

Three-time World Champion Vonn, who did not race in Sunday's slalom event after a scary wipeout in the giant slalom in Hinterit, Austria, on Saturday, said the problems in Zwiesel were not a result of mother nature, but rather poor preparation from the tournament organizers.

"I have something I need to say. I am not trying to complain or be negative, but I feel strongly that this is an important safety issue that needs to be brought up.

"It is something that's on everyone's mind but everyone is afraid to bring it up. I just finished free skiing the World champs super G race hill and I was shocked and disappointed at the condition of the hill. The hill is extremely bumpy pond ice from top to bottom.

"It has clearly been injected or hosed down with a ton of water. I have never seen a course prepared like this in my entire career, nothing even close. In my opinion the hill is WAY too icy and downright unsafe!

"I find it very hard to believe that the FIS has any concern for the safety of the athletes when the World Championships race hill is prepared like a bumpy ice rink. I fear there will be a lot of DNF's and crashes in the coming days."

Vonn is absolutely right to bring up the issue of unsafe conditions, and I applaud her for raising the topic and asking the questions. I don't think her social networking site was the most efficient way to go about things, but at least it is now in the public domain and hopefully things will be sorted out on the hills.

Vonn is one of the most talented racers out there, and if she says conditions are unsafe, then you must know that they're bad. For her to say something like this, the slick mountain must be in terrible shape.

The racers often know best about these kinds of things. Let's just hope those organizers above her pay attention.

Lindsey Vonn captured American fans for one brief, shining moment with that gold medal in the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

She was supposed to be our Golden Girl many times over, but there was just that single gold medal. She was supposed to win five, but a shin injury took care of that.

These days Vonn still competes on the world scene, but at home she's more famous for her cover shot on ESPN The Magazine, posed as Sharon Stone in the hit movie Basic Instinct.

With her Olympic success and good looks, Vonn is still a relative unknown compared to other American athletes. The last time we saw her in the United States was in a Law and Order episode.

Vonn has expressed frustration over her sport's lack of visibility in America, even North America. In non-Olympic years, skiing is invisible—and with invisibility comes less recognition. Vonn won another Super G race this month in Canada, but who knew?

Put her on the cover of ESPN The Magazine, and without reading the print, you'd wonder: Geez, who is THAT?

Vonn still makes about $6 million a year in endorsements. She has 34 World Cup victories but still makes small dollars compared to her tennis counterparts.

It's all about the snow.

After looking around the country so far this winter, it's becoming more and more apparent that Americans hate snow. The NFL hates snow, Philadelphia hates snow and New York certainly has an aversion to the white stuff.

For Vonn, snow has been her way of life, but it hardly makes her one of her country's recognizable athletes, and her sport does not go overboard to market its stars.

Vonn is a downhill star, but her battle for recognition is nothing but an uphill climb.

And that's a shame. 

Lindsey Vonn, the greatest Alpine skier in the world, knows how to protect a house.

If you saw her Under Armour commercial you can see she is strong, very well balanced (she can stand on one of those big rubber balls that flop me on my fanny if I just try sitting on one), extremely fast and she has legs that will scare away would-be house intruders. She can protect my house.

Don't you agree? Wouldn't you hate to be an intruder thinking you're going to boost a plasma TV and then—BAM—you're downed by a skier who skied down the stairs and trapped your ass. You try to get away but big iron-grip thighs have you in a vice where you can barely breathe. Your buddy tries to help but gets poked in the groin by the sharp end of a ski pole.

Lindsey Vonn knows how to protect a house!

And she can do it with a smile, photographers around, in a bikini or however she wants.

Her birthday is October 18th. You have only a few days to send her cards or gifts or well wishes to her on Facebook. Do it!

I bet you're asking, "What do you get for a very wealthy, very healthy, very pretty skier?" It's tough finding the right gift for Lindsey Vonn.

I suggest cheese. The three-years-in-a-row world champion loves cheese. Cheese helped her win a gold medal. If everybody sends her cheese, she can have enough to build her own mountain. Stack it up, form it, make a mountain out it. Call it Colby Mountain. She skis down. Who wouldn't want to eat cheese skied on by Lindsey Vonn?

Cheese helped get her a gold medal. It healed her leg. All hail the anti-inflammatory powers of cold, malleable CHEESE. Check out this story from Winter Olympics time (it rhymes): 

To Heal, Skier Vonn Chooses Cheese

U.S. Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn is using cheese to heal her injured shin. For the purpose of reducing inflammation, she’s using an Austrian cheese called topfen.

Topfen is a soft cheese without whey.

No whey, you say?

To which we respond…resoundingly with: "Absolutely, whey!"

Yes, we repeat, the slalomly Lindsey and her Vonnerage are resorting to fromage.

So her medal dreams are no mirage, they’re resorting to fromage.

Her boo-boos in need of mending, and yes, we’d love to be attending for if you saw her swimsuit layout per pages 84, 86 and 87…you’d have no trouble comprehending.

With body perfect plus skiing form which won two world cups…and yes, if you’ve seen pages 84, 86 and 87 you’ve seen those world cups.

But will it work, this cheese ice pack, as an inflammatory reducer?

Her team of experts, her muscle mechanics at Lindsey Vonn Garage, swear it is just that…a super cure-all producer.

That’s why they resorted to fromage.

It’s worked for years since the dawn of cheese…invented by the Kurds…a cottage industry of animals…working without words.

Its varied uses are storied epics in works of history. Who can forget the Big War French with their rubber-shortage tires…when gouda wheels came into being to put out those metaphoric fires.

Downhill racers need strong firm shins as they’re shushing down the mountain. Calcium helps firm up those shins… from cheese, if you’re still countin’.

From cheese circles, yes, we’ve gathered our own experts. Does topfen work? Will it save the day? Will the legend turn out true?

“Why, yes, it’s known to act this way,” says cheese activist, Jane Fondue. 

But from the skeptic camp with a theory damp on Jane’s bubble he comes to stomp us. “There’s no science supporting this,” snaps cheese whiz, Stevie Wampus.

“Oh, yes there is. In the affinage, if you catch it before it cures.”

“Oh, there you go, Miss Expert, I bet under your saddle, there’s burrs.”

“Well, then” comes back Miss healthy Jane, “I can do more dips than you.”

“Bring it!” Wampus says, crouching low, cheese ball in hand, “Miss Fondue.”

Hey guys, no cheese fights, we have to say. What about the lovely Lindsey Vonn and the poem you messed up? We had something good going. I guess this is what we get for importing a couple of cheese experts. Geesh.    

The 15th day of competition witnessed further speed skating acrimony. In total, 21 medals were awarded to nine nations.

For the first time at the Vancouver Games, Canada and Germany have overtaken the USA in terms of the number of golds taken. The US retains overall first with 34 medals.  

For Norway, it was another day of success. Their single gold medal has the country on course to surpass their 2006 total of 19 medals—which included two golds—and has the distinction of being the country's 300th Winter Olympic medal. Norway has already collected seven gold medals at the Vancouver Games.

Biathlon

The illustrious Bjorndaelen, who had thus far taken a silver in the Vancouver games, took his sixth Olympic gold in the men's 4 x 7.5-km relay at the Whistler Olympic Park to move to within one of his predecessor Bjørn Dæhlie's record of 12 Olympic medals.

Bjorndaelen's teammate, Emil Hegle Svendsen, earned his third medal of the games and his second gold. The Norwegian team supplanted Russia from first after the the initial leg and retained the lead for the remainder of the event, with a finish time of 1:21.38.1.

Bjorndaelen crossed the finish line wielding a Norwegian flag that had been given to him. The gold was Norway's 300th Winter Olympic medal.

Austria and Russia's teams took silver and bronze, respectively.

Snowboarding

The unpleasant conditions that had impacted the games on the 14th day refused to abate and rain covered the course at Cypress Mountain during the ladies' parallel slalom, while a seemingly impenetrable mist obscured the surrounding scenery.

The crowd, which was sparser than usual, was unperturbed and continued to enthusiastically support the competitors.

One of the pre-race favourites, Germany's 2006 silver medallist Amelie Kober, failed to advance from her quarter-final after losing her balance and crashing out. It had been an unconvincing day for her.

In the semi-final first run, Germany's Selina Joerg and the Netherlands' Nicolien Sauerbreij navigated their lanes fluidly, with Joerg finishing her first run 0.17 seconds faster. She could not replicate that display in her second run, crashing as she approach the red line and sliding into the gates.

Joerg contested the bronze with Austria's Marian Kreiner, who had been overcome by Russia's Ekaterina Ilyukhina.

In the "small" final, Austria's Kreiner established an impressive lead over Joerg and her assured second run held off the German Joerg to secure bronze - her country's third medal in a snowboard event. 

The unexpected composition of the final did not diminish the spectacle. The two competitors executed an almost indistinguishable first run, separated only by a narrow margin of 0.02 seconds.

In the second run, Ilyukhina momentarily lost her balance, compromising her run against Sauerbreij. Despite an admirable recovery, Ilhuyikina could not remedy her errors and was unable to overtake her opponent. Sauerbreij finished 0.23 seconds faster.

Sauerbreij and Ilyukhina became the first snowboarders from their respective countries to medal in the Olympics.

Alpine Skiing

The ladies' slalom commenced under unpleasant conditions at the Whistler Creekside. Adverse weather had already caused the postponement of the ladies' giant slalom second run, and the impaired visibility had resulted in a number of crash outs—most notable among them, Lindsey Vonn.

Germany's Maria Riesch established a 0.40 second lead over Slovenia's Sarka Zahrobska to take first place in the first run .

In contrast, the USA's Lindsey Vonn had a lacklustre slalom, compounding her recent disappointment at Whistler since her acclaimed gold in the downhill. Vonn conceded just 16 seconds into her run after an average beginning.

In the second run, Austria's Elisabeth Görgl, who has taken two bronzes, achieved a time of 53.01, which allowed her to withhold off a remarkable 14 challengers until displaced by France's Sandrine Aubert.

Maria Riesch's sister, Susanne, specialises in the slalom discipline and appeared certain to establish a respectable finish time but terminated her second run after becoming entangled with one of the course's poles. She lay despondently in the accumulating snow.

Austria's Marlies Schild, who had impressively emerged from a error, achieved a time of 51.40—0.49 seconds faster than the then incumbent, Sweden's Maria Pietilae-Holmner.

Unfortunately for Schild, Maria Riesch was the final competitor in the second run and capitalised on a strong beginning to reclaim first with an overall time of 1:42.89.

Riesch became the first woman to receive more than one gold medal at a single Olympic since Croatia's Janica Kosteli in 2002, and the first German to do so since Katja Seizinger in the 1998 Nagano Games.

Curling

After 47 matches between 10 nations over a 10-day period, the ladies' curling reached its climax with gold contested between Canada and Sweden at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

The consolatory bronze was coveted by Switzerland and reigning world champions China, who won their match 12-6. The Swiss capitulated in the eight end after China took four points to extend their lead to six.

In the final, Sweden took a sensational gold to shock the home favourites.

Canada took a one-point lead in the second end but it remained a balanced match.  The lead alternated between the two sides, and it was 6-4 to the Canadians in the ninth end.

There was a certain disquiet amongst the crowd when a few spectators occasionally shouted chants that could have unsettled Sweden's skip Anette Norberg.

What should have been the deciding delivery for Canada's skip, Cheryl Bernard, proved to be an unfortunate error for her. She failed to remove one of Sweden's stones from the house, giving Sweden a tantalising opportunity

Sweden calmly exploited the unexpected chance to take two points and extend the match to an extra end. With the exception of small clusters of Swedes, the crowd was unnervingly silent.

Tension was palpable and reached a peak when the two sides had just one stone available, with the game still tied at 6-6.

Bernard again made a fundamental error, this time condemning her team to defeat. In her final delivery, Bernard intended to displace two of Sweden's stones from the house but could only take the initial target out. The other stone was untouched and gave Sweden the decisive point.

The gold medal is Sweden second consecutive gold in ladies' curling.

Speed skating

Three medal finals in the short-track variant were held at the Pacific Coliseum.

In the men's 500-m, Canada's Charles Hamelin took gold with a time of 40.981 to the joy of the Coliseum's partisan crowd.

Hamelin had established an early lead before being overtaken by South Korea's Sung Si-Bak, but regained first after the South Korean crashed out.

The USA's Apolo Anton Ohno was later adjudged to have been responsible for the crash of Canada's Francois Lous-Tremblay and was disqualified. Sung-Si-Bak was advanced to second and Tremblay took the bronze

In the ladies 1,000 metres, China's Wang Meng seized her third gold of the Vancouver Games with a time of 1:29.213.

Wang Meng aggressively coveted the lead but tussled with the USA's Katherine Reutter. She eventually regained the lead and appeared to have consolidated first, but still had to battle with Reutter and South Korea's Park Seung-Hi until crossing the red line.

China's Zhou Yang was disqualified. It is Wang Meng's fourth Olympic gold medal, equalling South Korea's Chun Lee-Kyung.

Canada had more reason to celebrate when the country's four-man team took gold in the 5000-m. Canada held onto the lead for much of the race, despite a determined pursuit by South Korea and China, and finished with a time of 6:50.045.

The two Asian nations took silver and bronze, respectively. The USA, featuring Apolo Anton Ohno, finished in fourth.

Charles Hamelin has become the first Canadian to receive two golds at the Vancouver Games. 

As winner of the Microsoft Office Winter Games Blogging Competition, I have been sent to Vancouver and Whistler to check out some of the 2010 Winter Olympic events, including the men's Giant Slalom competition.

Fortunately for me, I got to be right alongside journalists from around the world. Unfortunately for the U.S., they got to be beat by people from around the world.

The men's Giant Slalom is an event in which skiers race down a hill through sets of gates that are separated farther than regular slalom events, but not as far as Super-G races. Typically men race between 56 and 70 gates, with the Olympics using 52 of them.

Run one saw four U.S. athletes—Ted Ligety, Tommy Ford, Jake Zamansky and Bode Miller—hit the 405m vertical drop course Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, the scores were not great.

The bar was set high by world champion Giant Slalom skier, Carlo Janka of Switzerland, with a time of one minute and 27.17 seconds.

Ligety was first for the U.S. and took eighth place with 1:17.87, point-sixth of a second behind Janka. First-time U.S. skier Zamansky was up next and he finished in 34th place with a time of 1:19.85. Fellow newcomer Ford came flying in at 1:19.10, taking 26th place.

The true upset was for Miller, the men's Super-Combined gold medalist, who did not finish the race after a touch to the ground on his first run. He did not compete in the second run.

Ligety, Ford and Zamansky had a chance to hit the Giant Slalom slopes for one more run, but Miller will have to come back Saturday in the men's regular slalom competition to redeem himself.

Run two saw Ligety fall to ninth place with a time of 1:21.24 and a combined time of 2:39.11. Ford retained his 26th place and raced down the hill at 1:22.05 and a combined score of 2:42.15. Zamansky jumped to 31st place, making his second run in 1:22.5 and scoring a combined time of 2:42.34.

Janka took home the gold with a combined time of 2:37.83, 1:20.56 on his second run.

Although the U.S. didn't do so hot, it should be noted that although losing is losing, the times in this event are so close that even a breath at a wrong time can screw you up.

Standing along the sidelines, I can appreciate the talent of these guys win or lose, because wow—those boys were moving fast! I can maybe make it down a run in 15 minutes on a board, but these guys are knocking it out in under a minute and a half. 

You're flying dangerously fast and even one fall—as seen by Miller's mishap—can end it for you.

So, even though the medals escaped the U.S. this round, I've got to give it up for our athletes. Watch for the U.S. men's skiers next in regular slalom this Saturday and hopefully, we can have a better day.

No need to worry though. In such a cold sport, there's always a chance to heat up.

Controversies are like religion. They are like faith. They exist because people believe in them. Tonight, Lydia Lassila became Australia's fifth gold medalist at a Winter Olympic Games with a score of 214.74 at Whistler's Cypress Mountain, besting silver medalist Li Nina (207.23) and bronze medalist Guo Xinxin (205.22) of China in women's aerials.

The Monday prior to the finals, Lassila and Jacqui Cooper called foul on a number of freestyle skiing judges who they strongly believed were biased towards the Northern Hemisphere teams, including Norwegian moguls judge Morten Skarpass. The tirade took place after the qualification round, in which all four Chinese team members qualify.

"There are random scores, and that's not good enough," said Lassila on the purported bias. "We've dedicated our whole lives to this. It's not good enough at an Olympics."

During the qualification round, Lassila noticed the bias from the judges on her jumps. "I felt my jumps were really underscored," she said after finishing ninth in qualifying. "I was thinking 95, not 85. That's 10 points, which is a lot.

"I saw [Guo] Xinxin from China do a full full full [triple twisting triple somersault], and she crashed it and got 88.08 points. That doesn't make sense. I stomped a double full full and got 85. Even though her degree of difficulty is higher, she still crashed. That's something I don't understand. 

"They've got to get their act together and make sure they don't make mistakes and that they judge it fairly."

Lassila argued that a number of judges are not qualified to give scores without a sufficient understanding of aerials and moguls.

"They might come to one or two World Cups, and then they don't see aerials for a year," Lassila said. "Some of them are more specialised in moguls than they are in aerials, which is why we are seeing some differences. I would like to see more former athletes become judges or have specialty judges there to inform the judges, educating them and keeping them refreshed."

Even Australia's team performance director Geoff Lipshut believes that partiality has been rampant among the judges.

"The whole thing should be under review," Lipshut said. "There was a very disappointing result for [silver medalist] Dale [Begg-Smith] in the moguls. They need a specialist panel of mogul judges…and a special panel of aerial judges. 

"The IOC does an incredible job with the organiser and puts on an event, each country spends a lot of money bringing its team here. I think the sport has a responsibility to get the right result for the athletes at the Olympic Games."

But could this all be just a way for the Northern Hemisphere countries to disregard Australia as a rising winter sports power? Five golds in three Winter Olympiads is quite an accomplishment for a team that has never medaled until 1994. This is also the first-ever time that Australia earned three medals at a single Winter Games.

Could this all be a conspiracy? Are the Aussies getting shafted? Was Lydia Lassila right?

Sound off and voice your opinion on the question: Is Australia getting the short end of the stick at the Winter Olympics? As always, keep it clean, and keep it on topic.

After a shin injury cast doubt on her Olympic ambitions, Lindsey Vonn turned to an unusual rehabilitation technique: Austrian cheese.

Vonn rubbed it on her leg and wrapped it in cling film; a home remedy that is said to help reduce swelling and promote the healing process.

There is little evidence to support this theory, but the type of cheese she used is high in acid, which can have anti-inflammatory properties.

The skier also tried laser therapy and massages, used painkillers and a Novocaine-type cream, and had several weather-related days off for rest.

It is more likely that these factors contributed to her swift recovery, but fingers crossed for magic cheese.

The American skier laid all doubts over her injury to rest when she earned a gold medal in her first race at the 2010 Winter Games.

Vonn won the downhill in 1:44.19, picked up a bronze in the super-G. She will have the chance at more medals in the slalom and giant slalom later this week.

So how does the Sports Illustrated cover girl manage to gain half a second on everyone else?

- She has the size and strength to handle the same G force as a fighter pilot
- Her skis use a formula 1 style Kinetic Energy Recover system (KERS)
- Her fearless approach allows her to stick to the fastest racing line

John Brenkus explains her technique on the Sport Science show.

This article was written by Katie Hobbs for Half Volley, the half sport, half science website.