Vail’s Lindsey Vonn won a women’s two-run sprint World Cup downhill in Altenmarkt-Zauchemsee, Austria, on Saturday to tie Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell’s mark of 36 career downhill titles. “I am so glad she’s here today as she couldn’t be in Cortina a year ago. She is a true legend of our sport”.
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Vonn now holds 72 World Cup wins across each Alpine discipline.
Moser-Proell sat in the audience and was among the first to congratulate Vonn.
“I think the classic format is the best but it’s nice to do something different”, Vonn said.
The 31-year-old American veteran, Olympic downhill gold medallist in 2010 and world champion in 2009, backed that up with the fastest time down the second run (1:04.94) for a combined winning time of 2:11.17.
Home skier Austria’s Cornelia Huetter secured a bronze medal with 2:12.83.
“She is so kind”, Vonn said of Moser-Pröll, according to the AP.
Lindsey Vonn, of the United States, speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Altenmarkt Zauchensee, Austria, Saturday, Jan 9, 2016.
Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein, who led Thursday’s training, was 0.59 behind in third, and overall World Cup leader Lara Gut of Switzerland trailed by 0.80 in fourth. She is 58 points ahead of Vonn going into Sunday’s super-G.
Gut lost balance halfway down her run and just avoided falling but missed the next gate. “I didn’t get pushed around too badly”. “But physically I am OK”, Gut said.
“It’s become rougher, there are some bumps in it”, Gut said about the slope.
Vonn led by a comfortable.
Stay current on the World Cup circuit by downloading the U.S. Ski Team iOS app powered by Ski Racing here.. “It was bumpy and a lot of girls were having trouble”. “Lindsey always keeps a flawless balance between risking and skiing smoothly”.
What unique circumstances for Vonn to reach that milestone in a two-run sprint downhill unlike most fans have ever seen. “I knew many girls had problems so I chose to ski a rounder line”. Only the top 30 from the first run will be allowed to start in the second. Although her lead was big enough to remain in the World Cup lead after the race anyway, scoring no points was still a huge blow for her campaign. “But today she was”.
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Larisa Yurkiw, an independent Canadian skier who works in cooperation with Germany, Sweden and Norway on race days, repeated a career-best finish of second place for the day. She’s taking the excitement into the super G and the return of traditional one-run speed competitions.
