By Christian Kunz Feb 9, 2010, 18:44 GMT
Whistler, Canada - If one skiier can upset Lyndsey Vonn's quest for multiple medals at the winter Olympics it's her close friend Maria Riesch.
'A little bit tired,' was how Riesch was feeling after a 10-hour flight to Vancouver, but thanks to an upgrade to business class the joints were perhaps less stiff than most of her fellow passengers.
Riesch is Germany's biggest hope for gold in alpine skiing for many years, with a top placing possible in all five of her starts.
Like Vonn, she could emerge as a star of the Games.
'I have had a really good season. I was on the podium in many disciplines and that gives me a lot of self-confidence,' she said.
'In a lot of disciplines I am not the outright favourite but I'm among the favourites.'
Riesch's all-round talents could be a trump card at Whistler. She believes having a number of starts helps take the pressure off. Winning the first event on Sunday - the super combined - would be the perfect start and could set her up for the rest of the Games.
Riesch could also gain strength from the knowledge that she won the super-combined World Cup at Whistler almost exactly two years ago.
But for now the 25-year-old from Bavarian resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is simply glad to be an Olympic participant for the first time.
In 2002, when Vonn was getting her first taste of the Olympics, Riesch was skiing mainly the Europa Cup circuit. Then in 2006, two years after she won the first of so far 13 World Cup races, she was injured at home rather than racing at the Turin Games.
'Experiencing the Olympics on television was really depressing and was hard to take,' said Riesch, who has had to overcome two cruciate ligament knee injuries.
This season has seen Riesch battling with Vonn for the top spot in the World Cup standings. She has been on the podium 11 times with two victories.
An Olympic gold though would top any number of World Cup wins and put her up with great German alpine ski Olympians like Katja Seizinger or Rosi Mittermaier.
Seizinger was one of her idols. As a 13 or 14-year-old she remembers watching the three-time Olympic champion lead a German medals sweep with Hilde Gerg and Martina Ertl in the combined at the Nagano Games of 1998 and being motivated by them.
'See those three zebras (of the striped ski suits) on the podium with the snow coming down made a big impression and will be difficult to repeat,' she said.
Nagano, where Seizinger also won the downhill and Gerg the slalom, was the last time Germany won an Olympic alpine ski gold.
Not all German hopes are on Riesch's shoulders, with the women's ski team also having a big contender in last season's World Cup giant slalom champion Kathrin Hoelzl.
Nevertheless all eyes will be on Riesch who will probably need every last ounce of her fighting spirit if she is to get the better of Vonn.
Just a few weeks ago last season's World Cup slalom champion seemed to despair after being by the American despite feeling she had raced almost perfectly.
But Riesch has always managed to pick herself up quickly, as she showed at the 2009 world championships in Val d'Isere when she bounced back from costly errors in previous races, a bad training crash and a cautious first-leg run to win the slalom gold.
'The fact that in extreme situations I can believe in my strengths is of course no guarantee of success but it's good to know,' she said.
The events in Whistler could perhaps also test her friendship with Vonn, who like Riesch will be doing everything to win her first Olympic medal.
'Everything is no longer so easy which is why we try to keep skiing out of it as far possible,' she said.
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