WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP) — Lindsey Vonn's Olympics began the way everyone expected them to, with a gold medal in the downhill, her signature event.

Little went according to plan thereafter.

Yes, Vonn did collect a second medal, a bronze in the super-G, but she faulted herself for making the mistake of easing up on the bottom half of the course and giving away the gold.

Otherwise, she failed to finish three of her five races.

She hooked a gate in the slalom leg of the super-combined, skiing out and wasting a lead that appeared to set her up for another victory. She took a nasty tumble in the giant slalom, breaking her right pinkie and punishing her back. Her last event, Friday's slalom, ended after less than 20 seconds, when she straddled a gate in the first of two runs.

All in all, nowhere near the Michael Phelps-like performance some predicted, but OK by her.

"Five gold medals was never my goal. Of course, I wanted to try. And looking back, four medals were very realistic," Vonn said. "But nothing goes the way you want it to. Nothing's ever perfect."

Vonn also made this absolutely clear: She is thrilled to be heading home with her first Olympic medals.

"I know I could have done better in some of the disciplines ... but I am totally satisfied with everything that I've done here in Vancouver," Vonn said. "I have the gold medal that I came here for, and I couldn't be happier."

One certainly is better than none, particularly when you consider that Vonn banged up her right shin during slalom practice Feb. 2, badly enough that simply walking became a chore for the next 48 hours or so. That accident came on the very first run of what was supposed to be three days of pre-Olympic training, and the forced time away from the slopes not only cut into Vonn's preparation, it left her questioning whether she'd be able to compete at all.

Then came her spill in the giant slalom Wednesday, when Vonn ended up tangled in the course-side netting after slamming her chin off her knee, pounding her back against the hard slope and breaking her finger.

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