SNOWBASIN — With the exception of "Ms. Consistency," the final event of the 2002 Paralympics — the women's slalom — was not one for the record books for American skiers.
There were simply too many mistakes made on the tight slalom courses. In this case, mistakes caused two U.S. skiers to drop from golds to silvers and stopped the U.S. women mono-skiers short of their goal, which was to hit a perfect score of 12-for-12 medals. Instead, the ladies went 10-for-12, which, as one skier said, "ain't half bad."
The one exception on Saturday was Sarah Will, the 36-year-old, four-time Paralympian and 12-time gold medalist. She won the slalom and collected her fourth gold of these Games.
For a time it looked like it was going to be the fourth clean sweep by the Americans for mono-ski or sit-ski. Leading up to this event, the U.S. women had won every medal offered in the mono-ski class in downhill, super-G and giant slalom. Otherwise, they won nine of the nine medals available.
It was, said Davis, a goal of the five sit-ski competitors on the U.S. team to win all the medals.
After the first run, things looked good for the Americans. Bunched near the top in the mono-ski class were Muffy Davis of Park City in fifth; Allison Pearl of Reno, third; Stephanie Victor of Park City, second; and Will, who was in first.
On the first run, Lacey Heward of Park City, a two-time bronze medalist at the Salt Lake Games, fell. Then on the second run, with a sweep there for the taking, Davis, Pearl and Victor all fell. Davis and Pearl fell near the top of the steep pitch leading into the finish, while Victor fell seven gates from the finish.
And, for a moment, the crowd stopped cheering and all breathing stopped as Will made her final run.
Coming over the steep face, she guided her mono-ski, which resembles a chair perched on a single ski, too straight into one gate. Her options, she said, at that point, were to do something crazy and hope she finished or to play it safe and try for a good finish.
"In making the one gate I came to a complete stop," she said in the finish area as she spoke to a large gathering of international media. "At that point my main concern was to stop in time to make it and to not do something dumb.
"I skied decently through sections. Then I told myself I just needed to make that one gate and then try not to make any more mistakes. At that point it was a fight for survival. Everyone was in the same position."
The mono-ski class was the last on the course. New snow over the past two days, combined with heavy pressure from the earlier skiers, made conditions extremely rough.
In the LW3/9 class, for disabilities on both legs or one arm and one leg, Mary Riddell of Dove Creek, Colo., was in second position after the first run, but mistakes on the second run pushed her back to fourth and out of the medal race.
In the LW2 class, for leg amputee skiers, Sarah Billmeier of Yarmouth, Maine, was in the lead after the first run, but a mistake pushed her back to second.
"I hung too long on an edge," she admitted, "and almost stopped. It wasn't a great run. Being my last Paralympics, I really wanted to win today."
Even though she didn't win, she did tie the all-time record for the most medals won in a Paralympics. She earned three medals in these Games to tie Reinhild Moeller of Germany and Lana Spreeman of Canada at 13 career medals.
Allison Jones of Colorado Springs was in second after the first run but fell to fifth.
Csilla Kristoff of Las Vegas was in first place after the first run in the LW6/8 class for disabilities of one arm or hand, but also made a mistake and finished with a silver.
Also racing were the men in the visually impaired class. Andy Parr of Rockland, Maine, and his guide, Dave Marchi, finished with a bronze.
Parr said his mistake came on his first run.
"I just dogged it on the flats and couldn't get speed. It cost me a lot of time. As consistent as the other racers are, it's hard to make up time like that," he said.
Even though the women didn't get their clean sweep in the mono-ski class, they still managed to leave with top-performance recognition. The United States won 37 medals in alpine skiing, and 24 of them went to the women.
Second was Austria with 26 medals, followed by Germany with 14.
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