VANCOUVER - Italian ski showman Alberto Tomba turned the 1992 Albertville Olympics into Alberto-ville, and now Lindsey Vonn is putting out a welcome mat for Vonn-couver.

The host city that grew up at a time of 19th century gold rushes is braced for another stampede, this time of eager athletes brandishing skis and skates — and the occasional broom — rather than picks and shovels. Vonn, Alpine skiing’s fresh-faced golden girl, is favoured to mine a rich seam of the precious metal up in the mountains at Whistler. The winner of every women’s downhill bar one this winter, the American has dominated women’s skiing since she struggled with injury after a training crash at the last Turin Games and has lived in the full glare of U.S. media attention in the run-up to Vancouver. Vonn joins the “Flying Tomato”, the moniker given to red-haired Olympic halfpipe champion snowboarder Shaun White, and speed skaters Shani Davis and Apolo Anton Ohno as the headline names in an invading U.S. team intent on over-running their northern cousins. The free-spirited Ohno, a native of nearby Seattle, is already a familiar face with his bandana and goatee beard, but the short track skater plans on being remembered more as the United States’ most decorated Winter Olympian. He already has five medals from two previous Games and, entered in four events, has every chance of skating past Bonnie Blair’s American record of six.

Davis, who in 2006 became the first black man to win an individual Winter Games gold, is favourite to defend his 1,000 metres title and also holds the world record at 1,500 metres.

White will be the man to beat at Cypress Mountain, a snowboarding superstar with a cult following who also ranks as probably the wealthiest athlete in the village thanks to endorsements running into the multi-millions. Watch out for Switzerland’s Carlo Janka, an all-rounder with impeccable timing who took three wins in three days at Colorado’s Beaver Creek resort in December and then triumphed again in Wengen last month.

Rebellious American daredevil Bode Miller, the world’s most controversial ski racer, will also be a focus of attention in Whistler as he tries to fill the only gap in his medal collection after flopping in Turin four years ago.