the bottom of the course thickened to the point that officials called the race after several holds. The last
15 women never hit the course, but the results were made official.
After the race, the calculators came out to crunch the numbers, revealing that Vonn had mathematically
sealed her fifth consecutive World Cup downhill title with a 231-point lead and only two more downhills on
the schedule (with 100 points going to the winner of each race).
“Downhill is my favorite event and it’s always nice to wrap up a title before the end of the season, before
the last races,” Vonn said. “It puts a little less pressure on me.”
Led by Vonn, four of six American starters cracked the top- 10 list, while all six scored World Cup points.
Julia Mancuso recorded her 11th top- 10 result of the season (across three disciplines) in sixth place.
Stacey Cook continued to build upon her most successful season yet with her fifth top- 10 result of the
season in ninth place. Teammate Alice McKennis was just behind in 10th to mark her best finish since
taking eighth at the opening downhill of the season at Lake Louise in early December after spending the
summer rehabbing a broken leg.
“It wasn’t perfect, but I was going for it and pushing my comfort level,” said McKennis. “It’s not an easy
course. There’s a ton of terrain, which is really fun, and the pitch is really tough.”
The last time four U.S. women finished top- 10 in a World Cup race was in 1985 at a giant slalom in Waterville Valley, N.H.
“This team is very, very focused and they’re putting a lot of effort into it,” said coach Alex Hoedlmoser.
“Some of the girls were five seconds out in yesterday’s training run and today they were in the top 10. They
know what they need to do fix things and be fast. They’re racers and racers step it up on race day.”
Laurenne Ross finished 18th, ahead of Leanne Smith — who was suffering from a pulled calf muscle
sustained at the last downhill in Garmisch — in 26th.
Warm temperatures and wet snow came in overnight, deteriorating the surface of the speed course and
making it unsafe for competition. The super combined was canceled. With only two super combined races
run this season, Vonn grabbed her second discipline title in as many days thanks to a win in one of the
earlier super combined races and a second-place finish in the other. It was Vonn’s 11th career discipline
title; she also has three overall crystal globe trophies.
“You never want to have a title clinched with a canceled race,” said Vonn. “I had it happen to me at the
World Cup Finals last year with the overall globe and I’ve won a super combined title with a canceled race.
It’s tough when you only have three races.”
GEPA; USSA
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Alice McKennis grabbed her
second World Cup top- 10 finish of
the season after an off-season of
rehabbing a broken leg.
