Lindsey Vonn took a joyous roll in the snow after capturing her
second super combined title with a second place finish in Tarvisio.
GEPA
Are Tarvisio
feeling.”
It was the first time in months that Vonn was able to put together a satisfactory
slalom run in competition. “The super combined stands out as maybe the hardest
title to win this season, mainly because my slalom has been struggling a lot,” said
Vonn, who finished 0.18 seconds behind Maze in combined time.
Riesch was bumped to a final position of third in the season kombi standings. “I
got some good points today,” Riesch told the Associated Press. “It wasn’t enough
for the globe, which is a little bit sad, but I didn’t have a great slalom run, and
Lindsey deserved it today.”
For the moment, Riesch’s overall lead, which had reached 216 in Are, was
trimmed down to 176 with eight races remaining.
Vonn looked on the bright side of being the underdog. “At this point in the season
I don’t have much to lose; Maria is quite a bit ahead of me in the overall title hunt,”
she said. “I’m skiing relaxed and having fun and like I have nothing to lose, so I’m
still positive and have a good attitude.”
Anja Paerson was back in the start to see how her knee, injured in Are but OK,
would hold up in at least the downhill leg. After a third-place finish there she stuck
with it in the slalom leg to impress herself with a fourth-place finish.
With Vonn leading the charge, the U.S. Ski Team landed all five of its women in
the top 20. Julia Mancuso put down the fourth-fastest slalom time to jump from
14th in the downhill leg to sixth. Leanne Smith recorded her second-best World
Cup career result in ninth place. Laurenne Ross and Stacey Cook finished 19th
and 20th, respectively.
Tarvisio Downhill, March 5
Another day, another second-place result, another crystal globe. The next day’s
downhill brought some double takes.
Vonn grabbed her fourth consecutive downhill title with a second-place finish
behind Paerson.
In contrast to the previous day, the globe landing in its permanent home was not
a sure thing. Vonn, the reigning Olympic downhill champ, came into the penulti-
mate downhill with a 103-point lead on Riesch, but that was far from a guarantee
in this sport.
With only the Finals downhill still on this season’s schedule, Vonn captured the
title with a 143 lead on Riesch, whose position in second was also untouchable
— 184 points ahead of Elisabeth Goergl, who could potentially lose her podium
SkiRacing.com MARCH 17, 2011 | 27
