01/10/26 09:50:00
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01/10 09:49 CST Lindsey Vonn impresses again winning World Cup downhill for 2nd
victory of Olympic season
Lindsey Vonn impresses again winning World Cup downhill for 2nd victory of
Olympic season
ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria (AP) --- Lindsey Vonn showed again Saturday she
is the standout downhill racer in this Olympic season.
Vonn won her second World Cup downhill in four races this season, raising
expectations in this remarkable comeback racing at age 41 with her right knee
rebuilt using titanium implants.
The United States star was 0.37 seconds faster than Kajsa Vickhoff Lie in
tricky, overcast conditions. Vonn was jumping up cheering in the leader's box
when her teammate Jacqueline Wiles raced into third place, 0.48 back.
On a shortened course that took her fewer than 67 seconds to complete, Vonn
still clocked 130 kph (81 mph) for one of the fastest speeds any women racer
will hit this season.
"It feels amazing. I try to enjoy every single second I am out here because it
is just so fun to go fast," she said.
Vonn crossed the finish line with a look of determined satisfaction, punching
the air with her right fist and nodding with short, sharp movements of her head.
"I knew what it was going to take to win today," she said. "It was a sprint and
I had to give it everything I had, definitely had to risk a little bit."
Vonn extends World Cup records
With each victory, Vonn extends her record as the oldest race winner in the
60-season history of the World Cup circuit. Her 84th career win on the circuit
was her record-extending 45th in downhill.
The United States star later made a family video phone call alongside her coach
Aksel Lund Svindal, the men's downhill champion at the 2018 Pyeongchang
Olympics where Vonn took bronze in the women's race.
Vonn was Olympic downhill champion at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and
shapes as a strong contender for the next gold medal race scheduled Feb. 8 on
the first Sunday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
It is at the storied Cortina d'Ampezzo slope where Vonn has excelled in her
career, including a World Cup downhill win eight years ago where Wiles also was
third.
"Being on the podium again with her is super special," Wiles said.
Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion, was only 17th Saturday trailing Vonn
by 0.97.
The defending Olympic champion, Corinne Suter, made her season debut Saturday
after injuries and was more than a second slower than Vonn.
Banner day for US team
The U.S. team had five racers in the top 20 with world champion Breezy Johnson
seventh, 21-year-old Allison Mollin a career-best 14th and Keely Cashman tied
for 18th, less than a second behind Vonn.
The race was delayed for 25 minutes while Austrian prospect Magdalena Egger was
airlifted from the course after a season-ending fall and crash into the safety
nets. She stood up with a bloodied nose, and later tests showed extensive
damage to her right knee including a torn ACL, the Austrian ski federation said.
Egger was runner-up in Vonn's season-opening downhill win last month at St.
Moritz, Switzerland.
Vonn extended her lead in the season-long World Cup downhill standings, after
finishing second and third in the other races. Saturday's race was the fourth
of nine scheduled downhills in the World Cup this season.
She earned 100 race points and now leads by 129 from Emma Aicher of Germany,
who placed sixth Saturday. Vonn is chasing a ninth World Cup downhill season
title a full 10 years after her eighth, when she also won in Zauchensee.
"I felt like I was skiing better in super-G this summer," she said, "but when I
got to the races in St Moritz everything was working really well right from the
start."
On Sunday, Vonn will start in a super-G that should be on a longer course than
the downhill.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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