eighth, ahead of Stefanie Koehle in 12th; Andrea Fischbacher was
16th and Michaela Kirchgasser 18th.
It was a rare good tech day for the Americans as Julia Mancuso
and Vonn both made the top 10 in fifth and seventh, respectively.
Mancuso’s second run, the second-fastest of the day, thrilled U.S.
head coach Alex Hoedlmoser. “She is skiing really well and she
knows that she’s fast again, she just now needs to make two runs
in a row where she has no mistakes but the speed is definitely
there,” he said.
“I’ve been skiing so good in training so it was nice to put a run
together,” said Mancuso, who has tallied seven World Cup top- 10
results in three disciplines this season. “I knew I had a lot of op-
portunity to move up [the second run] because it was so close and
tight between the first group.”
Vonn slipped to seventh after standing sixth in the first run. While
she has collected 69 podium finishes in the other four alpine dis-
ciplines, Vonn has still never stood on a World Cup GS podium. “I
was in a good
position to
maybe get on
the podium
today,” Vonn
told the Asso-
ciated Press. “I just gave the course too much respect. My confi-
dence is there and I know what to do now. It’s a matter of skiing
an aggressive run from top to bottom but not overskiing and not
making mistakes.”
Sarah Schleper was the third and last American to make the 30-
racer second run and finished 15th to establish her season high
and her third scoring result of the this year. Megan McJames just
missed the second run, finishing the first run 32nd, 2.75 seconds
off the leading time.
Riesch took the overall lead back from Vonn, who had held a slim,
three-point edge for nine days (during the Christmas break they
spent together) following her wins in downhill and super combined
races in Val d’Isere.
Riesch, whose first GS World Cup podium came less than a year
ago in Maribor, was elated to be back in control after 19th-place
finish at St. Moritz, a 24th at Val d’Isere and a DNF at Courchevel
tarnished her sparkling early-season success of five podiums, in-
cluding two wins.
“The start of the season was great for me,” Riesch told Fisalpine.
com. “Just before Christmas I had three or four races which were
not so good. So it was not a problem to go for Christmas holiday
and start with new motivation. You can come back strong. I’m re-
ally proud of it.”
Despite poor overall results in tech
races for the U.S., Julia Mancuso (fifth
in Semmering) was happy with her
first World Cup GS top five since 2007.
