Americans are Silver in Solden

High atop a glacier in Solden, Austria, the first alpine events of the World Cup season took place this past weekend and the Americans got off to a quick start. On Saturday, Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, California, stormed to second place in a race that didn't feature here teammate and all-around threat, Lindsey Kildow. Climbing all the way up from 12th in the first run, Mancuso could hold off Italian Denise Karbon, who was the woman's giant slalom winner, collecting her first victory since 2003.
On the men's side, it's a safe bet that many of Sunday's faithful fans had their eyes on Bode Miller has he was set to compete in his first race as an independent racer, having dropped his affiliation with the U.S. Ski Team. Miller, skiing for just the 6th day in the past month due to a lower back injury wasn't far back from the leaders finishing in a surprising 5th place when only days before, his coach John McBride questioned whether Bode would even complete. While Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, last year's overall champion and eight-time World Cup winner, won the gold, it was Park City native Ted Ligety, who was a mere 3/10 of a second behind.
While the Americans rarely capture top results in Solden, they will face a bigger test as the tour moves on to Levi, Finland before coming across the pond for several North American events where both the US men and woman are poised to rack up points.