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**truebluefan** · 02-02-2008, 08:57 PM

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (Feb. 2) - World Cup downhill leader Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) out-lasted a wild ride through light snowfall Saturday to tie for fifth place in a downhill on the 2003 FIS Alpine World Championships speed run. Vonn is second overall and she padded her DH lead as her top challengers finished behind her. The winner, starting 47th on a day of changing weather, was Slovenian Tina Maze.

Flat light and poor visibility troubled early skiers before the sun broke through about halfway into the field of 51. The tricky conditions claimed 15 skiers who failed to finish their run, including downhill world champion Anja Paerson of Sweden; eight of the top 30 skiers were from start No. 31 and higher.

Maze, racing in sunny weather, which enabled skiers to see bumps and trouble spots on the 2.7K Corviglia course, was timed in 1:44.38. Runner-up was Maria Holaus of Austria (1:44.72), who skied eighth.

Vonn, running 16th, finished in 1:44.80, surviving three spots where she could have gone off course. Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA), who skied through a fog bank as she started, was 25th with Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) 36th. Leanne Smith (Conway, NH) and Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA) were DNFs in the 20-degree weather.

"Lindsey's just on a different level now, skiing so well and with so much confidence," Head Coach Patrick Riml said. "Unfortunately, when Lindsey was running today the light was not the best. It was dark, I have to say. She just couldn't see the bumps. They caught her off balance a couple of times and she skied amazingly well, making a couple of great saves.

"The problem, though, for our girls was the visibility. If you can't see the bumps, it's hard to adjust," Riml said. "If there's a bump or a little hole, it's very difficult. Jules ran in the fog, Lindsey had the flat light and, really, Stacey skied so much better than her result showed. She skied well."

After 24 races, Austrian Nicole Hosp continues to lead the overall standings with 917 points. Vonn is second overall at 818 with Mancuso fifth (709). After six DHs, with four remaining, Vonn has 475 points to 273 for Renate Goetschl of Austria and 264 for Canadian Britt Janyk.

The women race a super G Sunday to complete their visit to this fashionable resort which hosted the 2003 alpine Worlds and is bidding against Vail and Beaver Creek, CO, for the 2013 championships.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 AUDI FIS ALPINE WORLD CUP
St. Moritz, SUI - Feb. 2, 2008
Women's Downhill
1. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 1:44.38
2. Maria Holaus, Austria, 1:44.72
3. Lara Gut, Switzerland, 1:44.73
4. Emily Brydon, Canada, 1:44.80
5. (tie) Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, and Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 1:44.80
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25. Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 1:46.52
36. Stacey Cook, Mammoth Mountain, CA, 1:50.05
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DNF:
Leanne Smith, Conway, NH; Libby Ludlow, Bellevue, WA

**truebluefan** · 02-02-2008, 08:58 PM

VAL D'ISERE, France (Feb. 2) - Winds and a storm, which blanketed the top of the course with nearly two feet of snow, forced cancellation of a men's World Cup downhill Saturday on the 1992 Olympic Bellevarde course. Val d'Isere will host the 2009 FIS Alpine World Championships. There was no immediate word on rescheduling the race. A men's super combined remained set for Sunday.

Organizers were prepared for lots of snow. They removed four kilometers of safety netting Friday to bring in machines to help remove the projected snow, which arrived later than expected. The storm also came packing high winds and hundreds of course workers had little chance of preparing the course for a downhill.

U.S. Men's Head Coach Phil McNichol said, "A course worker sent me a text this morning reporting around 20 inches of snow at the top, which is a lot of snow for them to clear off a course like this. But, the wind is ripping pretty hard out there, too. Hopefully, the boys get in some good powder skiing today."

The super combined Sunday is expected to see Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) race along with World Cup overall leader Bode Miller (Bretton Woods, NH) T.J. Lanning (Park City, UT) and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY).

Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA), who won his first World Cup a week ago in another downhill in Chamonix, France, said, "It was good to get a couple of training runs on the World Champs course. Unfortunately, we can't race it. I'm skiing well and I would have preferred to race. This is the first time we've had a race canceled in a while, so we've been pretty lucky. I'm looking forward to getting some good rest at home and getting ready for the next races [Feb. 22-24, a super G and giant slalom on the 2010 Olympic course] in Vancouver, and then fire it up for the next downhill [March 1] in Norway."

Steven Nyman (Provo, UT) added, "It was great to get on the hill this week and learn the course, which should really help us out for next year. This is such a steep course that even a little bit of snow is a lot of snow. For me, it just gives me one more week to rest my back. I am feeling great and would have been ready to go today, but one more week of rest won't hurt.

"Hopefully they'll be able to reschedule it for Kvitfjell [Norway - the 1994 Olympic speed track] because that hill suits our style much more. It's technical and good for gliding, but much faster. It will be better for us, especially Marco. I'd like to see him keep moving up the downhill standings and he can do that in Kvitfjell."

The men's super combi begins Sunday at 4:30 a.m. ET with live interval timing available. WCSN.com will carry same-day webstreaming beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

**truebluefan** · 02-15-2008, 07:39 PM

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (Feb. 3) - Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) crept closer to the overall World Cup lead Sunday, finishing fourth in a super G - one-hundredth of a second off the podium. Points leader Nicole Hosp of Austria finished sixth, so Vonn trails by 89 points in second place. Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA) was 27th as Canadian Emily Brydon crushed the bottom of the run to win by 0.25 seconds.

"No weather problems today. It was a fair race, which is what we always want," said Downhill/SG Coach Alex Hoedlmoser. Saturday, a mid-race weather change brought out the sun and speeded the course so a racer starting 47th could win. Brydon, who was second in a super G at St. Moritz last December, ran 12th.

Brydon's time was 1:17.39 as she earned her first World Cup victory. In December, she was second in another super G at St. Moritz, which picked up two races from weather-troubled Val d'Isere, France. Austrian Elisabeth Goergl was runner-up in 1:17.64.

Vonn, the World Cup downhill leader, finished in 1:17.69, putting her 0.01 behind Austrian Renate Goetschl. Ludlow's time was 1:18.90 with Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) just out of the points in 32nd (1:19.04).

After 25 World Cup races, Hosp - the defending overall champion - has 957 points. Vonn is second at 868 with Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) sixth.

"It's disappointing to be so close to the podium - yesterday [in downhill when she tied for fifth] it was seven-hundredths, today just one-hundredth and five-hundredths away from second place," Vonn said. "These races have been so close and it'll be hard to look at video and find where I lost a hundredth.

"On the whole, I'm pleased with my skiing for the weekend. Yesterday was hard because of the flat light - it was totally lights out [dark]. It turned into a wild ride, and today it was sunny. I made it down without any problems and that's always good."

Hoedlmoser said he would have to analyze videos of the race to see where Vonn may have made a costly mistake "but she skied really well again. She had no major mistakes, but the race was so tight and unfortunately she was on the wrong side of the hundredths again to make the podium."

In downhill, skiers get one or more training runs on a course to familiarize themselves with high-speed sections and the terrain. In super G, there is no training - athletes show up and race.

"She's so confident in downhill, maybe because of the training runs. She knows where she can takes risks and what she can do. In super G, there's always the risk of going out if you take big chances, and with the tightness of the points race, no one wants to lose a race," he said.

He said the other U.S. women skied well and didn't make any major mistakes, either, "although it doesn't show in the results." Mancuso, who finished third overall a year ago as she recorded her first four World Cup victories, was 38th. Hoedlmoser was mystified on what went wrong. "She nailed my section [where he observed the race] completely, and it's hard to figure what went wrong. We'll need to go over the video for Jules, too."

The women race next on the men's 2006 Olympic Borgata speed track in Sestriere, Italy. They have another downhill Saturday and a super G next Sunday.

**truebluefan** · 02-15-2008, 07:42 PM

SESTRIERE, Italy (Feb. 9) - Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) claimed the World Cup overall points lead, tied the U.S. record for World Cup downhill victories and further fattened her lead in the DH standings Saturday as she won a downhill on the 2006 Olympic men's speed track. "I'm in a good place now, so I can ski confidently and focus on my run," she said. Rookie Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT) stormed out of the 40th start to finish eighth

Vonn collected her fifth win of the season, and the 12th of her increasingly brilliant career. She was timed in 1:38.86 over the nearly 3K Kandahar Banchetta course, the men's Olympic run two years ago and the site of Hilary Lindh's world downhill title in 1997. Canadian Kelly VanderBeek was second at 1:39.48. Marshall's time was 1:40.03 with Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) 22nd.

Vonn's performance lifted her to first place overall with 968 points after 26 races. Nicole Hosp of Austria, who was 23rd Saturday, is runner-up with 965. With Bode Miller (Bretton Woods, NH), it's the first time two U.S. skiers have topped the points simultaneously since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney won the overall title in 1983.

Vonn: "You had to be clean"
Vonn's 12 World Cup victories include nine DH wins. That ties her with childhood hero Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves. Rahlves also had three super G wins in his career; Vonn, 23, also has two super G triumphs and a super combined victory.

With three DHs remaining, she has 575 points to 323 for Austrian Renate Goetschl. The last U.S. skier to win a World Cup downhill crown was Street in 1996.

"This was awesome. It was a beautiful day with perfectly clear skies, and the course was awesome. I had a really good run," Vonn said. "It was definitely bumpy in some turns, but I was pretty clean. You had to be clean - you couldn't make mistakes because there's no place to make up for a mistake...

"That's what makes it challenging - you have to be on it all the way, glide well, make clean turns. You can't afford any mistake," she said.

In posting the fastest time Friday in the final training run, Vonn confirmed in her mind what her line would be. "I knew the key sections and where it was bumpy. And between the first and second jumps [on the lower half of the course] I was able to stay in my tuck," she said. "That was definitely important because you can go in there looking for speed in a tuck and get thrown around.

"I'm in a good place now, so I can ski confidently and focus on my run," Vonn said. "My equipment is going well, I've got a good support system, Thomas [her husband] is here and I'm really relaxed, and that translates into my skiing. It makes things a lot simpler so i don't have distractions while I'm skiing."

An hour after the race, Marshall said her feet still hadn't touched the ground after her first top-10 result. She was "a little nervous" going into her first training run, but having three training sessions to familiarize herself with the run removed any anxiety.

Coach: "Lindsey is pretty much unbeatable"
"It was a little bumpy, but Lindsey radioed up a good course report and my coaches gave me a good report, so I could go for it. There were some gliding sections and a couple of airs that were a lot of fun," Marshall said.

"If you have three training runs [as the women had in Sestriere], it comes down to the skier," said Downhill Head Coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "Chelsea nailed the line right away on the first training run and did a good job today. And Lindsey is pretty much unbeatable now. The only thing that could have beaten her here was herself...

"Lindsey tried to pick it up a notch in the last training run [which she 'won'] and tighten the screws a bit. She picked the line she was going to ski today and she felt comfortable after that last run," he said.

The women run a super G Sunday and have a slalom Friday in Zagreb, Croatia, before heading to Whistler Mountain, north of Vancouver, to race Feb. 22-24 on the 2010 Olympic course.

Click here for Lindsey Vonn press conference audio.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 AUDI FIS ALPINE WORLD CUP
Sestriere, ITA - Feb. 9, 2008
Women's Downhill
1. Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:38.86
2. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 1:39.48
3. Nadia Fanchini, Italy, 1:39.63
4. (tie) Renate Goetschl, Austria, and Nadia Styger, Switzerland, 1:39.71 each
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8. Chelsea Marshall, Pittsfield, VT, 1:40.03
22. Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 1:40.87
31. Stacey Cook, Mammoth Mountain, CA, 1:41.27
36. Leanne Smith, Conway, NH, 1:41.41
46. Keely Kelleher, Big Sky, MT, 1:42.31
50. Libby Ludlow, Bellevue, WA, 1:42.92
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DNF:
Megan McJames, Park City, UT

**truebluefan** · 02-15-2008, 07:44 PM

SESTRIERE, Italy (Feb. 10) - Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and Austrian Nicole Hosp slid into a tie for the women's World Cup overall lead Sunday when Hosp finished 14th and Vonn 16th in a super G where Swiss and Austrian skiers tied for the win. Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) was eighth as four U.S. women broke into the top 30. WCSN.com will webstream same-day coverage at 1 p.m. ET.

One day after Vonn tied the U.S. record for downhill wins at nine and took the overall lead from Hosp, the two made small mistakes on the 2.1K super G run on the men's Olympic hill from 2006.

Vonn had a three-point lead to start the day. Under the World Cup scoring system (18 points for 14th place, 15 for 16th), they finished the weekend tied atop the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup standings, each with 983 points after 27 of 39 races.

Fabienne Suter of Switzerland and Austria Andrea Fischbacher tied for the victory in 1:21.06. Third place went to Germany's Maria Riesch (1:21.30), who is third in the overall points at 881.

Mancuso, who overcame a near-spill Saturday in the downhill, posted a time of 1:21.90 with Vonn finishing in 1:22.44. Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) was 24th and Leanne Smith (Conway, NH), the 2007 NorAm overall and super G champion, 27th. Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT), a stunning eighth Saturday after starting 40th, was 38th in the SG.

Vonn never found the groove she had Saturday in collecting the 12th victory of her career. In DH, skiers get a minimum of one training run and preferably two on the speed course; they had three on Sestriere's Kandahar Banchetta track. In super G, they never train the course and only get to inspect it before a race.

Vonn said she would skip the next race, a slalom Friday in Zagreb, Croatia, so she could rest at home before the final weeks of the season with their inevitable pressures. "I'm going to take it easy, then go to Vancouver [downhill and a super combined blending a super G and slalom Feb. 22-24] and check out the Olympic courses," she said.

"Lindsey had a solid run and didn't seem to make any big mistakes, although she had a little problem at the top," Head Coach Patrick Riml said. "She didn't seem to be charging like yesterday, but she was solid, so we'll have to check the video on that run.

"Julia got caught in some soft snow yesterday, but she's been skiing so well all week and she had a solid run, too. Great result for Leanne. I was really pleased to see that. Stacey had a little mistake up top and it's tough to make up time on this course, so that was it," he said.

The next women's race is the night slalom Friday in Zagreb, which draws 40,000 or more each year for a carnival-like atmosphere. Then the women head to British Columbia's Whistler Mountain, the Olympic hill for 2010.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 AUDI FIS ALPINE WORLD CUP
Kandahar Banchetta run
Sestriere, ITA - Feb. 10, 2008
Women's Super G
1. (tie) Fabienne Suter, Switzerland, and Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 1:21.06
3. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:21.30
4. Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austria, 1:21.44
5. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 1:21.53
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8. Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, CA, 1:21.90
16. Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:22.44
24. Stacey Cook, Mammoth Mountain, CA, 1:23.05
27. Leanne Smith, Conway, NH, 1:23.22
38. Chelsea Marshall, Pittsfield, VT, 1:24.44

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