Cup career in 12th. Laurenne Ross just made the points in 29th.
Paerson’s home weekend of racing went from bad to worse in the super G. She was 15 seconds into the race when she intentionally skied off course after banging her right knee on a gate,
clicked out of her skis and dropped to the ground, clutching the knee. An MRI showed she hadn’t
sustained any major injuries and she made the decision to rejoin her team for physical therapy
at the next stop in Tarvisio.
Tarvisio Super Combined, March 4
The recipe for Lindsey Vonn’s 2011 super combined season title — her second after taking her
first last season had just three ingredients: a season-opening win, a sixth-place, hang-in-there
effort a week before in Are, and a second-place result to close the kombi season in Tarvisio. OK,
four ingredients. A dash of previous leader Riesch finishing third in the last race really brought
the dish together.
As the last super combined on the schedule (moved from the canceled Sestriere), it was the
only title that was sure to be awarded that weekend.
Organizers were forced to lower the start of the downhill leg after fog and snow pushed them to
the reserve start for what ended up being the only downhill training run on Wednesday. Thurs-
day’s run was canceled because of excessive overnight snowfall.
After some morning fog, the sun was back out at race time as Tina Maze captured her first-ever
super combined win. It was also her first World Cup victory of the season. Maze said it felt like
her home race after warm temperatures canceled her actual home races in Maribor. Standing
fourth after the downhill, Maze rocketed to the fastest slalom run of the day by nearly a second
(0.92).
Maze’s ascension to kombi greatness happened fast. After a career of sub-top-five results in the
discipline, she had jumped to her first podium three weeks earlier with the world championship
silver medal. The next week she was second again in Are.
“I’m very proud of this; I had never made it on to the podium of a super combined before this
season,” Maze told Reuters. “Today I knew I had a chance and I tried very hard because I had a
lot of fans from Slovenia, which is just across the mountain.”
Vonn held a 0.42-second lead on Riesch after the morning downhill, which, with the lowered
start, ran about 30 seconds shorter. As the last contender to come down, she took one glance at
the scoreboard and then did a jumping, screaming joy dance in the finish area.
“I was really nervous in the start,” said Vonn. “I basically said ‘I have to give it everything I have,
don’t hold back.’ It wasn’t the prettiest run but it got the job done. When I crossed the finish line
I was kind of holding my breath to see what the time was. For a second I thought that I had lost
the title, but then I saw that Tina Maze was winning and not Maria and I started freaking out. I was
happy and proud of myself, that I finally put down a run that I was happy with. It was an amazing
GEPA
Are Tarvisio
Lindsey Vonn, Maria Riesch and Julia Mancuso shared
their third podium of the season in the Are super G.
Julia Mancuso followed up her Worlds silver with a third-place finish in the Are super G.
SkiRacing.com MARCH 17, 2011 | 26
