Vonn wins 80th Career World Cup

Olympic Winter Games preparation is right on target following her 80th career FIS Ski World Cup victory on the Kandahar downhill track in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Saturday.

Lindsey Vonn edged closer to Ingemar Stenmark's all-time win record of 86 victories on Saturday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) when she won her 80th career World Cup race in a shortened downhill. Vonn had tough competition in Sofia Goggia of Italy who skied within 0.02 seconds of her time and Conny Huetter of Austria who finished third just 0.13 seconds from the lead.  

Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho) just missed the podium, posting a career-best World Cup finish in fourth.

Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) was 17th; Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, Calif.) was 22nd, and Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.), who was just added to the U.S. Olympic Alpine Team Saturday, was 37th.  Jackie Wiles (Portland, Ore.) and Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) both crashed. Ross did ski to the finish, however, Wiles was taken off the course in a sled and is being treated for a left leg injury. 

Jackie Wiles had a hard crash after trying to recover her line in the middle of her run. She was transported via helicopter for an evaluation of a suspected severe knee injury. There is no confirmation yet on any impact to her Olympic Team status.

Saturday’s race was scheduled to be a two-run downhill sprint. However, weather canceled downhill training both Thursday and Friday, so the women ran a downhill training run prior to the race Saturday. Both the training run and race started from the super-G start.

Saturday’s victory was Vonn’s fourth World Cup downhill win on the Kandahar track and her eighth career World Cup victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Up next, the women compete in another downhill Sunday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is scheduled as a full-length downhill event.