Over the five Thursdays of December Riding the Pine will take a look back at the year that was 2010, revealing each week the best of a different category. Last week was team of the year, this week I look at the female athlete of the year.
2010 was a strange year in women’s sports.
There was no mainstream female athlete that dominated in the usual sports like tennis, golf, or even hockey.
But when you look beyond those big sports there were two athletes that really separated themselves from the pack: one Canadian and one American.
The biggest difference between the two of them is one was able to get it done at the Olympics when the chips were down and the other came apart at the end.
I am referring to skier Lindsey Vonn and Eckville’s skeleton pilot Mellisa Hollingsworth.
In this case Vonn does edge out Hollingsworth because of the gold and bronze medals she earned in Vancouver. Olympic bling can carry a lot of weight and only one was able to fight through the pressure of an expectant nation.
First though there were some that deserve honourable mention like figure skater Joannie Rochette who won her sixth consecutive Canadian Championship and gave one of the most inspired and memorable performances of any Olympiad, even if it only resulted in a bronze medal; Caroline Wozniacki who had her break out year on the women’s tennis year, vaulting to No. 1 in the world; Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados who had two shutouts in the Olympics including a 2-0 win over the Americans in the gold medal game and was named the tournament’s top goalie.
Heading into the Olympics Hollingsworth had put together a season to remember. She was the most consistent slider on the world cup circuit, missing the podium just once and earned her second World Cup overall title, beating Great Britain’s Shelley Rudman by 38 points for the crown. Rudman by comparison missed the podium four times throughout the season.
Hollingsworth’s success had pushed her to the forefront of the Canadian Olympic team. Despite Canada being hockey mad, Hollingsworth became one of the Canada’s faces of the games.
Vonn’s season started out ominously. She crashed in the giant slalom at Aspen on Nov. 28th, bruising her arm badly and forcing her ski with her arm in a brace for the next several weeks to prevent further injury.
The next week in Lake Louise things didn’t get much better — going over a bump her knees came up to high, hitting her chin and splitting her lip. But not only did she finish that downhill with gold, she won a second downhill the next day and took silver in the super G.
Very little else slowed her down the rest of the world cup season as she won the overall World Cup championship, winning the World Cup title in three of the five disciplines — downhill, Super G, and combined. In the process she won her 33rd career world cup race, becoming the all-time American leader. She too entered the Olympics as the face of the American team.
But the Olympics is where the paths of these two diverge.
Vonn battled through a painfully bruised shin to win gold in the downhill and then later took the bronze medal in the super G. In between though Vonn crashed out in the slalom of the super combined, the giant slalom, and straddled a gate in the slalom resulting in a third disqualification.
Hollingsworth wasn’t so lucky to have five shots at a medal.
She had one chance and almost tragically missed the podium altogether.
Sitting in third place entering the final heat, Hollingsworth posted the fastest time out of the starting blocks, had the lead at the half way point and then inexplicably lost it completely in the bottom portion of the track and finished fifth.
It was heart breaking. The pressure she was under was immense, and unfortunately this one race overshadows the amazing season she’d had.
Vonn, however, returned home a champion and a hero.
The Olympics can be a cruel beast.
But when looking for a tiebreaker they served as means to split hairs on two terrific seasons.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com
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