American Laurenme Ross
returned to racing in Bad Klein
following a brutal crash last
month to finish 14th in the
super G.
Febienne Suter got back
on the World Cup podium
after a three-year haitus
in the Bad Klien super G.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM
women in the discipline. “Of course I’m happy about
this result,” said Goergl, who deflected most of the
credit for the win back to her team and coaching
staff, citing a thorough group preparation effort. “I
felt very comfortable on this course right after the
first inspection. I like this kind of slope, and the
snow. It was tough skiing, and I enjoyed it. My training run was not the best, but I got a good feeling for
the turns and what I need to do between the gates.
We did some video sessions and checked everything. There are a lot of people standing behind the
athlete.”
Austrian fans raucously celebrated the fourth win
by an Austrian woman on home snow in three
weeks (Marlies Schild won in Flachau and again in
Lienz with Anna Fenninger topping the GS) as Goergl claimed her fourth career World Cup victory.
Maria Hoefl-Riesch missed the races, coming
down with a flu-like illness of her own the day of the
training run.
Eight more American women followed Mancuso
and Vonn on yet another solid day for last season’s
leading national team in speed events.
Stacey Cook built on the ninth-place result she got
in the previous downhill in Lake Louise, climbing up
one spot to eighth for her ninth career top- 10 finish.
Julia Ford, 21, had a breakout day, scoring her first
ever World Cup points in 22nd and Laurenne Ross
made a brave return to World Cup racing after a
scary tumble into the Lake Louise fences in early
December, which required more than 100 stitches
to repair deep cuts to her face. She finished 23rd after taking Thursday’s training run in freeskiing style
outerwear to minimize speed. Alice McKennis was
the last American in the points, tied for 26th.
Super G, Jan. 8
The following day arrived with bright sun and inter-
mittent light snow flurries at the top of the course
set by American coach Chip White, who set as
straightforward of a course as he could on such a
wide-ranging and somewhat short super G hill.
Slovenian Tina Maze, a pre-season favorite for a
shot at this season’s overall globe, continued her
mid-season charge (three podiums in late Decem-
ber and early January) following a slow start to her
year. Maze led the top-ranked starters in the No. 10
bib with the goal of not giving the course too much
respect, as she said she had the day before. She
ripped to a nearly half-second lead and set up shop
in the leader’s box to watch as none of the following
10 racers could match her effort.
Suter, now at home on the hill where she finished
third on a day before, surprised her Stockli skis
teammate Maze with a 0.34-second winning mar-
gin to stand atop the World Cup podium for the first
time in three years.
“Yes, I’m very happy about these two days,” said
Suter, who led a group of four Swiss women in the
top 10. “Yesterday I was third, and today to be first
is nice, and I enjoy this feeling. For me super G is
always a little tough because you only have one
chance after your inspection. The whole team in su-
per G; we had also a good result in Beaver Creek,
and now it goes on here.”
Austrian Anna Fenninger rounded out the podium
in third place a week after earning her first career
World Cup win in the Lienz giant slalom. She has
landed on the podium at all three super G races thus
far this season with a second-place finish in Lake
Louise and a third-place result in Beaver Creek.
