ski the best that I could have. I made a couple mistakes. I was happy with my
second place, but even happier to stand up there with the [downhill] crystal.
It’s been an amazing season for me in downhill. I’ve been more consistent this
year than last year.”
The Garmisch race marked the second downhill this season that Vonn didn’t
win (there was also the St. Moritz race before the Olympics — the only other
that Riesch won).
After the Garmisch win, even Riesch said that throughout the downhill season it seemed like there was “no chance” to beat Vonn.
“Lindsey was always ahead,” Riesch said. “I’m really proud of my race today.”
Vonn clinched the downhill title — her third straight — with 725 points.
Riesch was next with 556 and Anja Paerson, who took third in the Garmisch
race, 1.13 seconds off of Riesch’s winning pace, also finished third in the standings with 385 points.
Mancuso was bumped to fifth place in the race, less than two-tenths of a
second off the podium.
“I went out and had an OK run,” Mancuso said. “I really just wanted to
charge ... in the end I skied a little conservative. But it was good to get another
consistent finish.”
Young fireball Alice McKennis also raced in the final downhill and, after
Tina Maze charges to her season’s first victory in the final GS race in Garmisch.
playing the course guinea pig in bib No. 1, finished 16th. Canadian Britt Janyk
was 19th, Stacey Cook 21st; Emily Brydon missed a gate and was disqualified.
World Cup Finals Giant Slalom, March 11
Next came the giant slalom race and the weather took a turn for the worse
— as did Lindsey Vonn. Just Vonn and Sarah Schleper were qualified to
compete in the final GS in Garmisch and the day was marked by light snow,
flat light and maybe a touch of bad luck for the American racers.
In the first run, Vonn, donning the same suit she’d worn the day before, had
rounded about the eighth gate of the course when she caught an edge, slid
onto her right hip, spun into the air and then did a second wild rotation on the
ground. The crash resulted in yet another trip to the clinic for Vonn, where
she was diagnosed with a bone bruise on the outside of her right knee.
As the race continued without her, it became a very tight one, but only after
Schleper had a little unwelcome excitement of her own. The 31-year-old mom
finished 20th in the first run and was furiously trying to make up for lost time
in the second. She was leading the run and closing in on the homestretch
when she, too, slid onto her side. In a display of great athleticism, she popped
back up to make the next gate but had scrubbed all of her speed. She ended
up 25th.
