Sports Illustrated called her “unstoppable,” “America’s best woman skier ever” in the magazine’s cover story last week.

No SI cover jinx here.

Today, Lindsey Vonn, the little girl they called “little hill” while learning to ski at Buck Hill outside Minneapolis, won Olympic Gold in the Women’s Downhill.

The Downhill was the first of five events slated for Vonn who has gotten a lucky bounce or two from the inclement weather at the games that allowed her rest a sore shin.

America loves our Olympic heros. Lindsey is well positioned to be our next Mary Lou Retton. NBC and America are pulling for her.

More on Vonn’s win here.

• Defying Injury, Vonn Wins Gold in Downhill New York Times
• Golden girl Vonn triumphs in women’s downhill CNN
• Golden! Lindsey Vonn dominates in downhill Yahoo! Sports
• Lindsey Vonn leads 1-2 US finish in women’s downhill USA Today

Thinking about ditching work the rest of the week and heading to Whistler Village to catch a few events? We are. Here’s a look at ticket prices and availability http://www.fansnap.com/2010-winter-olympics-tickets.

If you need to know the status of Lindsey Vonn’s races or the outcomes of other Olympic events as they happen, get TeamUSA alerts at http://teamusanews.org/.

Here’s a look at the hottest events. Did we mention Gold Medal Ice Hockey tickets are averaging $4k+? They are. And, they’re going up. Up $1k in under a week. More on that shortly.

Christian

(UPDATED: Hottest Olympic Tickets below)

Most fans know that scoring tickets to the hottest events through the box office can be a bit like winning the lottery. More and more, fans are turning to the ticket market where there’s no shortage of online sites where fans can find tickets. The better question for fans isn’t where to find tickets, but rather, where can fans find tickets at the best value.

For Olympics tickets in Vancouver, fans are using FanSnap to search from dozens of ticket providers and aggregate tickets to 200+ Winter Games events – all in one place.

Fans can sort and filter Olympics events based on location, event, price, number of tickets, date range, time of day and day of week.

FanSnap is a ticket search engine that helps fans find exactly the tickets they want – at the best value. FanSnap searches dozens of ticket sites representing hundreds of thousands of ticket sellers. This ensures fans are getting a comprehensive look at the market. FanSnap then plots the tickets on a map of the venue so fans can see all the available tickets at once as well as see the price of each ticket.

Some ticket sellers are highly motivated to sell their Olympics tickets. Others fully plan on attending the Games but list their tickets anyway — just to see if someone will offer enough money to make them stay home.

This variation in motivation level of the seller creates 25% to 50% and even 100% differences in prices. FanSnap makes obvious the huge variation in asking prices so fans can easily see where the best values are.

FanSnap Map of GM Place for 2010 Winter Olympics Gold Medal Ice Hockey tickets

On any given day, fans using FanSnap will find the most comprehensive view of Olympics tickets available, see at a glance tickets 10%, 25%, even 50%  less than those around them and know they found the best value available.

Date          Hottest Olympic Events                                                Lowest Price    Avg. Price
2/28/10    Ice Hockey - Men’s Gold Medal Game - IH050                            $2,347    $3,683
2/13/10    Alpine Skiing - Men’s Downhill - AS001*                                    $1,117    $2,568
2/25/10    Figure Skating - Women’s Free Program - FS009                           $725    $1,769
2/21/10    Ice Hockey - Men’s Group A — Canada vs United States             $1,100    $1,650
2/26/10    Ice Hockey - Men’s Semifinal #2                                                 $1,006    $1,503
2/17/10    Snowboard - Men’s Halfpipe                                                       $1,006    $1,250
2/17/10    Snowboard - Men’s Halfpipe Qualification/Semifinal/Final             $868    $1,055
2/12/10    Opening Ceremony*                                                                      $506    $1,011
2/26/10    Ice Hockey - Men’s Semifinal #1                                                    $550    $934
2/15/10    Figure Skating - Pairs Free Program                                               $550    $850
2/27/10    Ice Hockey - Men’s Bronze Medal Game                                         $451    $834
2/23/10    Figure Skating - Women’s Short Program                                       $300    $806
2/18/10    Figure Skating - Men’s Free Program                                             $425    $788
2/27/10    Speed Skating - Men’s and Women’s Team Pursuit Finals               $460    $777
2/25/10    Ice Hockey - Women’s Gold Medal Game                                       $451    $776
*events in past

Christian