Lindsey Vonn insists - insists! - she is not wasting any time contemplating what it would feel like to bring home two or three or four medals from the Vancouver Games.
``The toughest thing about ski racing is all the variables involved in our sport,'' Vonn says, ``and I haven't given any thought to even the possibility of winning even more than one medal at the Olympics.''
She might be the only one who hasn't. Pretty much everybody else expects the 25-year-old American to be the star of Alpine skiing at Whistler Mountain and, perhaps, THE story of the Winter Games, in a Michael-Phelps-in-Beijing sort of way.
Vonn plans to enter all five women's races, and her expected success - no one is anticipating a buildup-and-flameout along the lines of what happened to Bode Miller in 2006 - is only part of the reason there is a growing sense that traditional power Austria could enjoy less than its usual level of dominance in Olympic skiing.
Austria's 101 total Olympic medals from Alpine events are nearly twice as many as any other country. At the 2006 Turin Games, Austria collected four of the 10 golds, and 14 of the 30 medals; no other nation left Italy's Alps with more than four medals.
But there's been quite a bit of turnover on the team. Thanks to injuries and retirements, the winners of eight of Austria's 2006 Alpine medals won't be in Vancouver, including Hermann ``The Herminator'' Maier.
The Austrian men, in particular, have struggled in World Cup speed events this season, although holdover Turin medalists Benjamin Raich - he won golds in slalom and giant slalom - and Michael Walchhofer are not ready to cede anything yet.
``We have so much quality in the team that we should win. We cannot be satisfied if we don't,'' says Walchhofer, the downhill silver medalist four years ago. ``Finishing fifth might not be bad - but that's not what I've been training for all summer.''
Nor, of course, have others, including a strong Swiss men's team led by a duo of Didiers - Defago and 1998 super-G silver medalist Cuche - along with up-and-comer Carlo Janka, who had his offseason preparation cut short by a virus but broke through with three wins in three races at Beaver Creek, Colo.
``The Swiss,'' U.S. Ski Team men's coach Sasha Rearick says, ``are coming on strong.''
There are others the Austrians will watch out for, including a pair of two-time World Cup overall champions: Miller and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who both could figure in multiple events.
Yes, that's right, folks: Bode is back. Back with the U.S. team after training and competing independently for two years. Back on the World Cup circuit after taking off the last part of the 2008-09 season. Back as a contender.
After a typically Milleresque mishap in December - spraining his ankle playing volleyball, of all things - he's showing signs of rounding into form, claiming his first World Cup victory in two years and turning in some fine downhill training runs. After a double-silver showing at Salt Lake City in 2002, big things were expected from Miller at Turin in 2006, but his nightlife shenanigans far overshadowed what he did on the slopes.
``Certainly, things are starting to come together more the way that I would want them to. Physically, I'm at a point now where I can ski hard from the top to the bottom,'' says Miller, who considered retiring before this season, then got a late start to fitness training and equipment selection.
``I'm still getting stronger, which is really encouraging,'' he adds. ``And the most important thing is we've started to make really good progress on the equipment. The stuff right now is such that I can ski 100 percent and have confidence in it.''
Among the women, top Austrians Kathrin Zettel, Elisabeth Goergl and Marlies Schild must deal not merely with Vonn, but also with Maria Riesch of Germany and Anja Paerson of Sweden.
Riesch is Vonn's chief rival and just so happens to be her best friend, too. They celebrate Christmas together each year at Riesch's home.
``That's ... our secret of success - that we are pushing each other,'' Riesch says.
She's the reigning slalom world champion and has won three World Cup discipline titles. Impressive, without a doubt, but nowhere near what Vonn's accomplished.
Vonn won two gold medals at the world championships a year ago, has ruled the World Cup circuit the past three seasons and could become the first U.S. woman since Jean Saubert in 1964 to win two Alpine medals at a single Olympics.
She is an overwhelming favorite in the downhill, an event never won by a U.S. woman at any Winter Games.
``I just hope I can keep it going up until, and through, Vancouver,'' Vonn says.
All eyes will be on her, but there are other plot lines worth watching, to be sure, including those ``variables'' Vonn talks about: wind, fog, snow, ice. It's possible Whistler's weather could play havoc with the schedule, and there have been all kinds of questions raised about the now-common practice of injecting courses with water to make for consistent - and, some say, too-slick - slopes.
There always seems to be someone who comes out of nowhere to win an Alpine gold, such as 21-year-old Americans Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso and France's Antoine Deneriaz in 2006. This time, surprises could come from Austria's Klaus Kroell, France's David Poisson or Liechtenstein's Marco Buechel, a 38-year-old heading to his sixth Olympics.
``This,'' Buechel vows, ``is definitely going to be my last one.''
In two previous Olympics in Canada - one summer, one winter - no one from the host country managed to win a gold medal in any sport, but Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Erik Guay, Emily Brydon or Britt Janyk could end that drought.
Looking for another possible upset pick? Only one women's World Cup downhill has been raced on the Olympic slope at Whistler Mountain in the past 15 years. It was in February 2008, and the winner was Switzerland's Nadia Styger.
Who finished next, a hundredth of a second behind?
Vonn.
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AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf, Graham Dunbar, Pat Graham and Arnie Stapleton, and Associated Press Writer Eric Willemsen contributed to this report.
