Lindsey Vonn didn't medal in Super-G but she's not defeated at 2018 Winter Olympics

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- One turn. One lousy turn. 

That was the difference between Lindsey Vonn and another Olympic medal, possibly even a gold. She looked heavenward after she crossed the finish line and raised her hands to her helmet. Then, looking over at her family, she mouthed, “I tried,” and shrugged helplessly.

Yet an hour or so later, she was smiling. At 33, these are her last Olympics, and the opportunities for more medals are precious. But she better than anyone knows how fine the line is between triumph and heartbreak, and ending up in the grey area in between isn’t always the worst thing in the world.

“I’ve been waiting eight years for this,” Vonn said, emphasizing her words. “I’m super happy. I left it all on the hill. Hindsight is obviously 20-20, but I wouldn’t change anything. I attacked. That’s what happens. I would be more disappointed in myself if I came down slow and not pushing myself and skiing stiff. But I didn’t.

“Everything lined up except for one turn. That’s all it takes. That’s ski racing and that’s why it’s so difficult to win at the Olympics because literally anything can happen.”

As if in confirmation, the name atop the leaderboard for Saturday’s Super-G was not Vonn’s or Sochi gold medalist Anna Veith’s, but rather that of Ester Ledecka, a snowboarder who has crashed the Alpine circuit.

“All you can do is prepare your best, give your best and at the end of the day, I’m going to go home and be happy with myself,” Vonn said, “because there’s nothing more I could have done.”

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Moral victories are not Vonn’s speed, never have been. She’s the greatest female ski racer of all time, and needs only six more World Cup victories to pass Ingemar Stenmark and drop the modifier. She wants so badly to win in Pyeongchang, not only to end her Olympic career in glorious fashion after a streak of ill-timed injuries, but also to honor the memory of her beloved grandfather, who died last November.

But if there’s anything Vonn has learned over these last five years, since the knee injury that forced her out of the Sochi Games and robbed her of the better part of two seasons, it’s to control what she can control and not force the rest.

She knew when she got the No. 1 starting position it was either going to be “really great or really bad.” Starting with the top-ranked skier and using the odd numbers from 1 to 19, the top 10 in the World Cup standings get to pick their starting spots. Because Vonn is ranked No. 10, she was left with the first spot.

The pristine track meant she could put down a blistering run, no ruts or bald spots to slow her down. It also meant she had no scouting report, no hint of where the line was or how fast the course was running.

She came out of the gate blazing, and it looked as if a medal would soon be hers.

“I felt really good. I was like, `Yes! I got this, I got this!’” Vonn said.          

But she knew from the men’s races earlier in the week, as well as the test event last year, that the bottom section of the course was the trickiest. As she approached the last turn, on the right side of the course above the final descent, she slipped, skidding out about 15 feet past the blue course outline.

Vonn managed to hang on, but the mistake cost her at least two-tenths of a second. She finished in a tie for sixth in 1:21.49, .38 behind Ledecka and .27 from the bronze medal.

“I just may have released my ski a little bit too early,” she said. “I think I released over that roll instead of holding onto the left ski a little bit longer. And that caused me to lose elevation and barely make the next gate.

“That’s what’s so difficult about Super-G. you don’t know the speeds, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Vonn said. “I just did the best I could with what I had.”

She will have two more chances at a medal, including Wednesday’s downhill, her signature event and the one where she won gold at the Vancouver Games.

She was beaten on this day, yes. But she is far from defeated.