as in the previous day’s race. This time, Germany’s Maria Riesch edged out
Emily Brydon for second place, finishing 0.35 seconds behind her best friend
as Brydon, smiling big for the loud and proud home crowd, was third, 0.70
seconds back.
Vonn had a bit of a lisp from her tongue-biting incident, but was thrilled
with the back-to-back victories.
“It’s definitely awesome,” she said. “It’s been a great weekend so far and a
great way to start off the year, especially with the new material. Obviously,
Heads are fast.”
Both Vonn and Riesch are Head skiers, as is Anja Paerson, who took
fourth.
Vonn said she was a little cautious coming down the top of the course — it
was the one split she didn’t win — after nearly crashing there in the previous
race.
“I was a little bit more conservative on the top part where I caught an edge
but I think I nailed the Fallaway and Fishnet again,” she said. “That’s why I
carried good speed onto the bottom. That Fallaway turn is the key part. If you
can nail it, you carry good speed.”
Riesch, who has shared the podium with Vonn three times now (twice here
and when she and Vonn went 1-2
in the Levi slalom), said the improved visibility and more consistent conditions allowed her
to push herself more than in her
third-place run the day before.
“I still have some problems going to the limits when I can’t see
very well,” she said. “Today I did
full attack. At the bottom I got a touch on my inside ski and got a little out of
my tuck — getting out of the tuck on the flat part is not the fastest — but I’m
very happy with my result today.”
Brydon, who had been vying to land on a World Cup podium at home in
Canada her entire career until her second place in the first race, said the double podium confirmed that her program is right where it needs to be.
“I really believed in what I did yesterday,” said Brydon. “I wanted to follow
it up with something good. I didn’t necessarily hope for another podium, but
I just kept with the same game plan. I’m really happy with third. You can
always tell yourself things but results are unfortunately the ones that confirm
them. I’m working toward a good thing.”
The Canadians represented extremely well once again in Saturday’s race.
Britt Janyk finished eighth, Kelly Vanderbeek 13th and Larisa Yurkiw 16th.
The U.S. team had its best collective result since 1991. In another amazing
display of coming up from the back field, Alice McKennis, who wore bib No.
50, skied into 10th place.
Last season, she landed a hat trick of victories in NorAm downhills and a
super G at Lake Louise and said her five seasons of familiarity with the hill are
serving her well in her debut World Cup season.
“I still can’t believe it. I’m so excited,” McKennis said after the race, donning cat-whisker-decorated tape to protect her face from the wind and biting
temps. “It’s way more than I could have hoped for here. I’m so happy. I just
wanted to come up here and maybe get some top 30s. To get a top 10 and a
top 20 is unbelievable. It feels good. I guess I just know the hill really well. I’m
really confident here.”
Also, Stacey Cook was 11th, Julia Mancuso was 12th, Leanne Smith 23rd
and Chelsea Marshall 25th.
Emily Brydon found her way to not
one, but two podiums at home.
Super G, December 6
It honestly looked as if Vonn, who’s broken just about every record in American history, was going to break yet another.
She would have been the only U.S. racer in alpine World Cup history to win
races three days in a row.
As Austrian Elisabeth Goergl stood in the leader’s box, with Vonn nearly
the last real contender for the victory, Vonn’s lead down the course became
slimmer and slimmer and when she crossed the finish line, her time was
0.03 seconds slower than the Austrian’s.
“I know I skied well,” Vonn said. “To lose by three hundredths ... it’s nothing. It’s like two blinks of your eye. It’s like the width of your first finger. It’s
such a small margin, it’s just a little bit painful because I was hoping to close
the weekend with a win. But I know my skiing’s there. My form is there. My
speed is there. The weekend’s gone fabulously and second place is fantastic.”
French skier Ingrid Jacquemod filled the last step of the podium. It was her
first World Cup podium since 2005 and her first ever in super G (her other
three were in downhill).
“It’s a very long time [since] I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy with
this result,” she said. “Last season was a tough season for me so I’m happy.”
The win was the third of Goergl’s Cup career and her first in SG — her other
two victories were in giant slalom. She said she didn’t feel like she was going
full attack, but simply felt her run was going smoothly.
“I felt pretty loose and easy going,” Goergl said. “It always looks that I’m attacking because of my aggressive style, but I didn’t feel that much attacking.
I felt like I tried to ski smooth and loose and let the skis go and that worked
today.”
As for beating Vonn, Goergl said
it was as unexpected for her as it
was for everyone else.
“It’s a surprise for me too a little
bit,” she said. “It feels good. It’s
really important for the Austrian
team. We have big expectations
on us and we haven’t been that
good in the last races. It’s good
that I won this race for the whole
team.”
Head Skis certainly proved
their worth this weekend. Like
Vonn, Goergl also skis on Heads,
as do Anna Fenninger and Maria
Riesch, who finished fourth and
fifth respectively, both within a tenth of a second of Jacquemod.
The weekend was also a good one for the home team. After Emily Brydon’s
bronze and silver finishes in the downhill races, the entire Canadian team
finished in the top 3 0 in the super G, a feat that the team hasn’t reached since
a GS race in Are about four seasons ago.
Kelly Vanderbeek finished on top for the Canadians, in 11th place, followed
by Britt Janyk in 13th, Brydon 17th, Larisa Yurkiw 24th, Shona Rubens 26th
and Georgia Simmerling 29th. As Simmerling skied into the points from the
50th starting position, the rest of her team jumped up and down and high-fived each other in the finish area.
“It is exciting that the team is so strong,” Vanderbeek said. “This is the best
super G course I’ve ever raced on in Lake Louise. It’s perfect from top to
botttom. And the team ... none of us expected to be that good. We’re ready
for [the Games] in February.”
The Americans didn’t fare as well as they did in the downhills, but Keely
Kelleher’s 20th place was a career best and she was happy with her run.
“It felt really good,” she said. “I just wanted to ski clean and execute
my game plan. I was skiing pretty well in training, so I wanted to have
at least one good race here. It feels good to finally see my game plan
come through.”
Elisabeth Goergl rejoices in her
speedy run in the super G race.
