2010 Winter Olympics: Julia Mancuso mines more Olympic silver

WHISTLER, British Columbia — Julia Mancuso stepped onto the podium and adjusted her tiara before accepting the flowers being handed to her for winning her second silver medal in two days.

"It's just about celebrating your inner princess," she said of the tiny silver crown. "My coach gave it to me as a gag gift four years ago and ever since then I've raced with it."

Now her fans, mother and sisters all sport the tiaras as they cheer for the Squaw Valley (Calif.) native who has grabbed the alpine spotlight with a pair of silver medals in the first two races of the 2010 Games. Mancuso becomes the only U.S. female skier to earn three Olympic medals. U.S. men's team legend Bode Miller also owns three Olympic medals.

Mancuso, who graduated from the Park City Winter School, won silver in the women's downhill Tuesday and silver in the super-combined Wednesday. Mancuso's teammate Lindsey Vonn, who won gold on Tuesday, was leading the competition when she caught a gate and fell on her second run.

"I gave it my best," said Vonn, who is still nursing a painful leg injury. "I skied well in the downhill and I thought I was skiing well in the top of the slalom, but it just wasn't my day. So I'm going to really use this time this afternoon and tomorrow to get my shin feeling as good as it can be and, hopefully, use this race as motivation for the next race."

Germany's Maria Riesch won the event with a time of 2:09.14 for two runs. Mancuso's time was .94 seconds behind Riesch, and Sweden's Anja Paerson, who crashed Tuesday, won bronze with a time of 2:10.19.

Injuries have kept Mancuso off the podium in international competition for the last two years.

"These Olympic Games, for me, has been just put everything else behind me," she said after Thursday's silver medal. "I have struggled with a back injury last year, and I really struggled to get top 30.

"So the beginning of this World Cup season, I've been a little nervous because I knew that I really wanted to be back in the top 15 and have a good start number for the races. So I've kind of spent a little more time focusing on wanting to finish and sort of make building steps, baby steps instead of just go all out every race. And really, all of those moments, it's all just been to come here and perform."

Even though her last podium was at Whistler two years ago, Mancuso always knew what she was capable of accomplishing.