Bormio awards ceremony

The award goes to Italian Elena Fanchini, the surprise silver medallist in the women's downhill. Fanchini, just 19, was the revelation of the race.

Having previously raced a mere four downhills on the World Cup circuit - never finishing better than 17th place - she stole a memorable second on the world's biggest stage.

"Props to Hermann," uttered with California-dude coolness by Daron 'El Gran Lebowski' Rahlves. The laid-back American kindly raised the roof to Hermann Maier after the Austrian's gold-medal performance in the men's giant slalom. Rahlves brought in the bronze, his second medal of the Worlds after his downhill silver.

The pansy award goes to the Swiss contingent, which, at a press conference, banned any device or thingamajig with a microphone, including handheld tape recorders commonly used by the press. The reason? To thwart the flu virus going around the games!

A French doctor, however, said you would have to put a microphone literally into a person's mouth to pass along flu germs. The doctor added that the Swiss were, in truth, a tad paranoid...

The gong for deadpan humour goes to American sultan of ski Bode Miller for this exchange with a journalist:

"Bode, how much energy do you need to compete at your best in all of the sport's disciplines?"

Bode: "47. I need 47 energy."

Yes, it's that man Miller again... The skillful soul lost a ski 15 seconds into his combined downhill run but carried on regardless, to the delight of the crowd and the annoyance of US head coach Phil McNichol.

"That's not worth ending your season for," McNichol said. "He wasn't even in contention at the first split (time), so I don't care how big his cape is."

There was a change of the guard in the Norwegian team with the legendary 'Attacking Vikings' Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt going home empty-handed for the first time in eight successive world championships.

Aamodt had looked on course for a silver medal in the combined, but the 33-year-old was disqualified after video replays showed him straddling a gate during the final slalom run.

Aamodt's loss was Aksel Lund Svindal's gain, with the promising 22-year-old Norwegian taking the silver in place of his compatriot.

"It's great to see Aksel on the podium, we've got a good young skier there," said Aamodt. "Now me and Lasse can look forward to retiring (after next year's Winter Olympics), sitting on the couch and watching Aksel on the television for a change."

This award surely goes to Lindsey Kildow of the US, who did her best to impersonate compatriot Daron Rahlves with her sensational tumble during downhill training.

The 20-year-old from Vail entered the games with so many expectations, yet like our grizzled Vikings, left with nothing.

She does have the benefit of being younger (and looking far better) than her Scandy male counterparts though.

This award goes to none other than Resi Steigler of the US. Can't think why though...

Sweden seemed to slightly misunderstand the concept of the inaugural nations team event, with Janette Hargin, Patrick Jaerbyn and Anja Paerson all missing gates/crashing in the first three Super-G runs.

As for the fourth run, the Swedish coaching staff failed to get their nomination in for the run, and had to forego their place.

"It's not my goal to be making headlines," Benjamin Raich insisted after his two golds. "I really don't know what being a star or a superstar means, but after my performances here I suppose I'll just have to live with labels like that."

Jokes aside, a hearty clap must go out to Croatia's Janica Kostelic for nailing a triple win with golds in the combined, the downhill and the slalom.

And all this while suffering the lingering affects of the contagious Swiss-microphone flu virus!

Miller might wear the cape, Raich might be the superman, but Janica is surely the wonder women of them all!