U.S. Olympic Alpine gold medalist Picabo Street shows-off her gold medal, Wednesday evening, Feb. 11, 1998, at medal ceremonies in Nagano.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Americans strike double gold

Web posted February 12, 1998

By Dennis Sodomka
Morris News Service

NAGANO -- Americans struck double gold in the Winter Olympics Wednesday, easing the pain of a four-day drought full of disappointing performances.

First it was Jonny Moseley romping down the moguls ski course like a jumping jack gone crazy. He blew by his rivals with an inspired run in the finals, highlighted by a signature jump that no one else performs in competition, the 360-degree mute grab.

An hour later Picabo Street served notice that the U.S. Alpine ski team was still a force when she won the women's super G by .01 second over Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria.

"I am completely recovered and I think I'll be able to get a medal in the downhill,'' said an exuberant Street after her race. A silver medalist in the downhill in 1994, Street was injured last year and had not raced on the Hakuba course until this year. She also fell in her final World Cup race before the Olympics, but was not injured.

Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria won the bronze medal. "This is a story,'' said Street. "Today Jonny Moseley and I created a story. If I can provide inspiration to other athletes, great! I think it will give a lot of people confidence, too, especially those with big obstacles placed in front of them.''

At the medals ceremony Street said she was thrilled to receive her medal from French skiing great Jean Claude Killy. She was nervous about singing the national anthem.

U.S. Olympic freestyle gold medalist Jonny Moseley jubilates after being awarded his Olympic gold medal in ceremonies Wednesday evening , Feb. 11, 1998 in Nagano. ASSOCIATED PRESS

"My mom taught me the words about four years ago that the toughest was the middle part,'' she said. "This summer I perfected it. I was going to belt it out right on key for a football game back at the University of Illinois, but I never got a chance until I did it tonight. Usually, I'm a woman of many words, but this time I'm almost speechless.

"I skied aggressively from the start, and took a lot of risks. made a big mistake in the beginning but it just made me mad and I went even harder, down to the bottom of the course. My mom told me on the phone she had a very special feeling today.

Moseley was the last skier down the mountain at Iizuna Kogen, so he knew what he had to do to win. As chants of "USA, USA'' drifted up the mountain he skied the course with wild abandon. The faster he went, the more the huge crowd cheered him on. When he reached the bottom he thrust both arms into the air, looked to the sky and smiled.

When his score was announced and knew the gold was his, Moseley pumped a fist into the air, before bending over and covering his face with his hands as his emotions overtook him.

"This is what inspires me, to have this kind of love from the Japanese crowd,'' he said. " I want to say to the Japanese fans, thank you for coming out and supporting me.''

Later at the medal ceremony he said the experience was even better than he thought it would be.

"This is more than I imagined in my wildest dreams,'' he said. "I spent about an hour a day thinking about this for the past year, but then I set it aside. But winning this is even better than I thought. I'd like to be up there on the stage every day. I should have been a drama major.

"Being at the medal ceremony was definitely the coolest part of my day, besides winning and besides being on the podium at the top of the hill. So in the last half hour, that was the most exciting thing that has happened to me yet.''

Wednesday's golds are the only medals for the United States so far this year. They were shut out in men's and women's snowboard slalom and women's moguls, all events they had expected to bring medals. Singles luge and pairs figure skating also were disappointing for U.S. athletes, although medals in those sports would have been a bit of a surprise.

The best America medal hopes for the remainder of the Winter Games are in singles figure skating, men's and women's hockey and bobsled. They also could sneak out another medal or two in Alpine skiing and speed skating.