Maria Riesch was the best of the
bunch in both Lake Louise downhills.
She decided to go ahead and inspect anyway, and she skied better than OK. In fact, on
Day 2 she pulled off what U.S. women’s head
speed coach Chip White called “one of the
most amazing recoveries in the history of ski
racing.”
Confident. Amazing. Experienced. But not the
fastest. Riesch, part of a dominant early-season German women’s team, dethroned Vonn,
forcing her to settle for two second-place finishes by margins of 0.12 on Day 1 an 0.10 on
Day 2.
“I think winning is always exciting,” said Riesch. “I don’t have as many World Cup wins
as Lindsey has. Somebody said [Vonn] has
seven downhill wins here, which is really unbelievable. There are also other downhills
where she is hard to beat. Beating Lindsey in
downhill, no matter where, is really special.”
The two proved that the rivalry is still friendly
by celebrating the birthdays of Thomas Vonn
and Marcus Hoefl, Riesch’s fiancé, with a
group dinner.
Third-place honors went to Austria’s Elisabeth
Goergl and Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin.
Vonn’s heroic save came in the middle of the
course on Day 2. After leading on the top section of the course, Vonn had her skis slip out
from under her, causing her to drag her upper
body along the snow while going wide around
a tight left-hand turn. As quickly as she fell,
Vonn was back on her skis, taking every risk
possible, and hammered down the rest of the
course to ski into a 0.74-second lead over the
previous leader.
The U.S. women’s speed team made up for
their tech-racing counterparts in Aspen, raking
in 14 top- 30 results on the weekend. Chelsea
Marshall, Leanne Smith, Alice McKennis, Lau-
renne Ross and Stacey Cook all brought home
a pair of World Cup scoring results.
After a hospital visit to her friend and fellow
racer Chemmy Alcott of Great Britain, who
broke her leg on the last of three training days,
Julia Mancuso continued her hot streak that
began at the Vancouver Games with fourth
and sixth place finishes in the downhills. Mancuso showed speed all week, taking the fastest and second-fastest times on the first two
training days.
“These top 15s with Chelsea, Alice and Leanne were fantastic,” said White. “We’re elated
with the performance of the entire team. This
was probably the slickest conditions we’ve
ever seen on a women’s World Cup downhill.
It was very, very challenging and these girls
did a fantastic job of sticking their nose in and
making something out of a very difficult situation.”
Goergl, who finished fifth in the second downhill, pulled herself out of the following day’s super G with a sore left knee following an acrobatic recovery from a fall. X-rays later revealed
that she had suffered a partial tear of the collateral ligament. No surgery was needed and doctors gave her a three-week timetable to return
to racing.
Lake Louise Super G, Dec. 5
After taking two tough strikes in the downhills,
Vonn came into the Sunday super G swinging
for the fences to avoid a Lake Louise strike-out. The green leader’s bar accompanied her
