01/10/26 05:45:00
Printable Page
01/10 05:43 CST Lindsey Vonn impresses again leading World Cup downhill and set
for 2nd win of Olympic season
Lindsey Vonn impresses again leading World Cup downhill and set for 2nd win of
Olympic season
ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria (AP) --- Lindsey Vonn showed again Saturday she
is the standout downhill racer in this Olympic season.
Vonn led a World Cup downhill by 0.37 seconds and was set for her second win in
four downhill races in this remarkable comeback racing at age 41 with her right
knee rebuilt using titanium implants.
Kajsa Vickhoff Lie was second fastest and Vonn was jumping up cheering in the
leader's box when her teammate Jacqueline Wiles raced into third place, 0.48
back.
High-ranked racers had completed their runs when the race was delayed for 25
minutes while Austrian prospect Magdalena Egger was airlifted from the course
after crashing. Egger was runner-up in Vonn's season-opening downhill win last
month at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The standings were unofficial with lower-ranked racers yet to start.
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.
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.
With each victory, Vonn will extend her record as the oldest race winner in the
60-season history of the World Cup circuit.
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. It
is at the storied Cortina d'Ampezzo slope where Vonn has excelled in her career.
Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion, was outside the top-10 places 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.
Vonn will extend 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 is chasing a ninth World Cup downhill season title a full 10 years after
her eighth.
___
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
|
