Super G, Jan 23
Five hundredths of a second. That’s all that separated Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch in the sec-
ond super G as Vonn put another clean run together to win her second super G in three days on a
course that fooled many a racer.
On the third consecutive day of sunshine, Vonn brushed off a sore and swollen knee to collect her
fifth World Cup victory in Cortina. “It was tough to charge today because my knee was really sore,”
she said. “Mentally, I just had to put it out of my head — every point is
so important right now.”
Riesch, the 17th racer down the course, finished with a time of one
minute, 22.69 seconds and held a very temporary 0.83-second lead
on the field but never even made it to the leader’s box. Vonn was next
up, and beat her by half a hair.
“I’m satisfied with my weekend,” Riesch said. “It’s tough to beat Vonn
in the speed events and I won on Saturday and was second today.”
Almost a full second behind the leading duo was the third-place finisher, Gut, who had a 0.53-second lead that held through the following 10 racers.
Mancuso finished 1. 15 seconds off the winning pace in fourth to
match her result in Friday’s super G and earn her sixth top-five result of the season. She had an impressive recovery of her own in the
middle of the course when she barely made a tight right-hand turn on
one ski.
“I’ve always liked Cortina, so it was nice to just relax and have fun
skiing,” said Mancuso, who is striving for her first World Cup win since
2007. “Right now, with how well both Lindsey and Maria are skiing,
you have to have a really good run. Today I took a couple really big
risks and had kind of a sketchy run but that is kind of how I’m looking
at it. I’m definitely trying to win. It’s hard.”
The start was back to its higher position above the Schuss Pomedes
— a narrow gap between two massive rock walls — and U.S. coach
Chip White set a course that saw 17 racers, including some podium
regulars, miss gates and fail to finish. “He set a difficult course; I think it was harder than he thought
I was going to run,” said Mancuso.
The U.S. had two more scoring results as Laurenne Ross bounced back from her crash in the
downhill to finish 21st and Leanne Smith took 22nd. Chelsea Marshall just missed the points in
31st.
“I think our whole team is skiing incredibly well; we are showing a lot of depth,” said Vonn. “It’s
great to be part of a team that’s doing so well and I think we’re feeding each off of other and giving
each other confidence. I think teamwork is the reason why we’re doing so well.”
Canadian Britt Janyk had her third scoring result of the weekend (22nd in the first super G, 24th in
the downhill) in ninth place, 1.78 seconds off the leading pace.
A total of 17 racers recorded DNFs. Such top- 10 regulars as Austrians Anna Fenninger, Andrea
Fischbacher and Nicole Hosp, as well as Slovenian Tina Maze and Italian Daniela Merighetti, were
all taken out of contention after skiing off-course. One tricky move near the bottom of the course
Andrea Fischbacher was one of 17 women to
DNF on Chip White’s technical super G course
set on Day 3 in Cortina.
Canadian Britt Janyk celebrates a ninth
place finish in the second Cortina SG.
— a tight, blind right-hand turn just after a small jump — ruined the days of several racers including
Hosp, Merighetti and her Italian teammate Elena Fanchini, who hooked the gate and fell hard but
was able to ski down. American Stacey Cook was eliminated after ducking under the panel of the
same gate.
As the World Cup tour passed the halfway mark in Cortina, Vonn had climbed 51 points closer to
Riesch, who led 1232 to 1087. Further illustrating the pair’s dominance was the fact that third place
Elisabeth Goergl of Austria was 459 points behind Vonn with 628.
