Just a day after declaring his tank was empty, Tommy Moe kicked in his jets and smoked his rivals.
Moe, who complained of being tired after finishing a lackluster ninth in the downhill on Wednesday, rallied to win the men's super giant slalom by a substantial margin Thursday in the U.S. Alpine Ski Championships.In the women's super-G, Shannon Nobis took another step on the comeback trail by beating Picabo Street.
The women's giant slalom was scheduled today.
Nobis and Street swapped positions from the day before. Nobis, runner-up to Street in the downhill on Wednesday, edged Street by two-hundredths of a second in the super-G.
Nobis, 22, of Park City, was timed in 1:11.23. Street, of Sun Valley, Idaho, finished in 1:11.25.
Megan Gerety of Anchorage, Alaska, placed third in 1:11.44.
Diann Roffe-Steinrotter of Potsdam, N.Y., skiing on her 27th birthday, placed fourth in 1:11.47. Roffe-Steinrotter was a pre-race favorite, having won the Olympic gold medal in super-G and also winning the final World Cup super-G of her career last week at Vail in the World Cup Finals. She will retire after the nationals.
Melanie Turgeon of Canada was fifth in 1:11.55.
Nobis, who was dropped from the U.S. Ski Team after the 1992 season because of a lingering knee injury and poor results, fought her way back onto the team with a series of solid results a year ago, including four medals - two gold - in the 1993 World University Games in Poland.
She also has enjoyed success on the NorAm circuit, and finished 10th in the super-G at the Olympics.
"This is really exciting," Nobis said. "I've had two awesome days here. I'm a four-event skier, so I'm hoping to pull off the combined title.
"Today I was really focused and skied clean. On the bottom half, I just let them rip. I just started diving in and going straight, and that's where I picked up my time."
In the men's race, times were tightly bunched on the leaderboard, except for Moe's 1.14-second advantage over runner-up Roman Torn of Canada.
"We had a good race - except for Tommy Moe," Torn said.
Added third-place finisher AJ Kitt, "Moe is just on fire. He's skiing at a different level."
Moe, 24, of Palmer, Alaska, has had a roller-coaster ride since winning the gold medal in downhill and silver medal in super-G at the Olympics last month. He bombed in the ensuing World Cup races in Aspen, but then rebounded to place third in a downhill and first in a super-G in Canada the next week.
He finished a solid third in the downhill and sixth in super-G at the World Cup Finals in Vail last week, but then floundered in Wednesday's downhill here.