Number 81. Vonn Takes Back-To-Back Downhill Wins Ahead Of Olympic Winter Games
Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) is ready for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games after picking up her 81st-career FIS Ski World Cup victory – her second-straight downhill win and third of the season – Sunday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
“I have so much confidence right now in my skiing, mentally, and my equipment,” Vonn said. “Everything is coming together better than I could have hoped or planned for. And now I go into Korea with a couple of wins under my belt and I’m just really looking forward to skiing the same way, or even better than I skied this weekend – full charge! No holding back. I’m going to lay it all out on the table and see what happens.”
It was another good news, bad news day for the U.S. women as Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho) picked up her second-straight top-10 result in 8th; Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) was 23rd; Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) 29th and Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.) in 31st. Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) was having a solid run until she hit a compression midway down the Kandahar track and slammed into the A-net at a high rate of speed. However, she did stand up briefly before being taken off the course in a sled as a precaution and is OK. In Saturday’s race, Jackie Wiles (Portland, Ore.) suffered a left leg injury resulting from a crash. She will miss the upcoming Games and the rest of the season. Ross also crashed in Saturday’s race.
In Sunday’s full-length downhill race, Vonn absolutely nailed the top portion of the Kandahar track, leading at the first two intervals over Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather. But she fell off the pace in the middle portion of the course, only to come storming back on the bottom to move into the lead.
“Its kind of similar to Lake Louise where I know exactly what I have to do to win,” Vonn said of the Kandahar track. “The bottom section is always critical. Almost every race I’ve raced here, the race is won or lost in the last 30-45 seconds.
“So I carried all my speed really well,” Vonn continued. “I executed exactly the line that I’d hoped for and I was able to actually accelerate down to the finish.”
For the second consecutive day, Italy’s Sofia Goggia finished second to Vonn. Weirather was third. Goggia continues to lead the overall World Cup downhill standings by 23 points over Vonn with one downhill remaining next month at the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden.
Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) opted to sit out this weekend’s speed events to train and rest up for the Olympic Winter Games. Shiffrin continues to lead the overall World Cup standings by 671 points over Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener.
Up next, the 2018 Olympic Winer Games. The first event for the women will be giant slalom on Feb. 12, followed by slalom Feb. 14; super-G Feb. 17; downhill Feb. 21; and alpine combined on Feb. 23.
