FROM VANOC:

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) today released its report for the second quarter of the fiscal year, which includes a management discussion and analysis, and interim financial statements for the period ending January 31, 2009. VANOC’s quarterly report is available at www.vancouver2010.com.

"As we expected, we’re in a positive cash position this quarter because of revenues arising from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), sponsors and ticket sales. Licensing and merchandising revenue doubled this quarter and over $94 million worth of tickets were sold," said John McLaughlin, VANOC’s chief financial officer. "However, these remain challenging economic times reinforcing our need to be financially prudent."

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Doug Haney, a media relations specialist for the U.S. Ski Team, recently sent out his recap of Lindsey Vonn’s season, one of the best ever by a U.S. skier.

Here it is:

2009 Season Detail
Nov. 15, 2008 – Vonn makes an incredible save to capture the first World Cup slalom podium of her career with a decisive victory at the opening slalom of the 2009 Audi FIS World Cup season in Levi, Finland. The win vaulted her into the World Cup lead.

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Just got off the phone with Patrick Deneen, the mogul skier from Cle Elum. Deneen just got in yesterday from Japan where he won the moguls World Championship.

He directed me to a website where you can watch his winning run.

From the U.S. Ski Team:

Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) led the way for U.S. sprinters in Saturday’s World Cup in Lahti, finishing 12th. Petter Northug of Norway won, sprint leader Ola Vigen Hattestad, also of Norway, was second and Nikolay Morilov of Russia took third.

“For Torin, it was a good race. Had things gone more his way, it would have been a pretty different outcome,” U.S. Cross Country Coach Patrick Casey said. “He was skiing top six, but ended up getting turned around on a pretty scrappy course.”

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Patrick Deneen of Cle Elum just won moguls gold at the world championships.

Here’s the release from the U.S. Ski Team:

The U.S. Ski Team’s Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) took the competition by storm Saturday, winning the gold medal in moguls at the 2009 FIS Freestyle Ski World Championships in Japan.

“This is incredible. It really hasn’t set in yet, but just to know that I have that now is a great feeling. I don’t even know how to put it into words. I just can’t believe it’s mine,” Deneen said. “It’s been a really long and tough season so far, so to have this win feels really good. To come out with a World Championship win is the most incredible thing.”

Deneen was closely followed in the men’s competition by teammate Sho Kashima (South Lake Tahoe, CA) who finished sixth. In the women’s moguls, Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) headed up the list for the U.S., finishing sixth.

On top of having the fastest time down the course, Deneen stuck a Back X, a trick he only learned four days ago, off the top jump. He then landed a D Spin off the bottom jump after struggling with the maneuver for the past few weeks.

Deneen said his ability to perform his air packages so well came from added effort away from the competition trail.

“I went home, worked on it and came back here and everything worked,” Deneen said. “I had a really tough training day yesterday and same with this morning, but everything just went together for my finals run. It’s pretty amazing.

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Video showing the 360-degree from the “Top of the World” at Whistler Olympic Park, site of the 2010 Olympics’ Nordic events.

Bode Miller, 31, ended his season early on Tuesday leaving ski fans to wonder if they seen the last of the United State’s most decorated ski racer.

The Associated Press reported last month that Miller was pondering retirement before the games.

Here’s the announcement from the U.S. Ski Team:

Two-time World Cup overall champion and Olympic medalist Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) announced Tuesday that he will take the remainder of the 2009 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup season off.

“Due to a number of factors, it makes sense to call it a season,” said

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From the U.S. Ski Team:

World Cup overall leader and downhill champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) won her fourth consecutive super G Sunday to move within 15 points of the discipline lead behind second place finisher Fabienne Suter of Switzerland.

Vonn, who clinched her second straight downhill title Saturday, has won the last three World Cup super G races and captured gold in the discipline to open the World Championships last month. She then went on to win gold in downhill.

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