ALPINE SKI. LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland –The saying “What goes around, comes around”, proved to be true today for Lindsey Vonn. After losing the Overall title two years ago in Lenzerheide to Maria Hoefl-Riesch by a mere three points after a cancelled race, due to today’s cancellation of the Downhill race Vonn became the proud owner of her sixth Downhill title, finishing the season one point ahead of Tina Maze.

Lindsey Vonn has won a record 17th Audi FIS World Cup globe and record sixth straight downhill title after fog forced officials to cancel the final men's and women's downhill in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on Wednesday. Here she is with her 2012 downhill globe. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom)

"Omg I won the World Cup Downhill title!!!!! 6 in a row with a bum knee! Everything in life comes back around. #believe #karma #onelegvictorydance #sochi2014" wrote Lindsey Von on Facebook.

Going into the Finals injured Lindsey Vonn was leading the Downhill standings. Since November the American won three Downhill races including her record 12th and 13th (sixth straight) victories in Lake Louse and a win in Cortina. Despite crashing out of the Val d’Isere DH, finishing sixth in St. Anton and missing both the Meribel and Garmisch Downhills after getting injured at the Schladming World Championships Super G, going into the finals she had 340 points, just one point more than Tina Maze. She was also 68 points ahead of Maria Hoefl-Riesch who was in third, and 96 points ahead of teammate Stacy Cook so any of these ladies could have been a contender for the globe.

As Maze had been keeping her impressive streak of results, rarely failing to land on the podium in any discipline, it seemed highly unlikely that she could miss that one point and not win the Downhill title. But the weather gods were not on Maze’s side today. A tick cloud of fog placed itself on the bottom section of the racecourse, forcing the jury to cancel the race after multiple postponements.

As there is no rescheduling of cancelled races at the Finals, today’s cancellation meant that even though not on the start list, Vonn won her record sixth straight Audi FIS Alpine World Cup downhill title.

The American set a new record as legendary skier Annamarie Moser-Proell has five straight DH titles (1971-75) for a total collection of seven globes in the discipline. With this globe Vonn surpassed Moser-Proell in the count of the total World Cup globes as the Austrian collected 16 during her career. Vonn is now the proud owner of 17 globes, only two short of Ingermar Stenmark who holds the record number of 19.

Men's downhill cancelled in Lenzerheide - season title to Svindal

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland –  After postponing the men’s downhill race from its original start time of 9:30 CET eight times until 13:30 CET, the fog claimed victory.

Keine Chance auf ein Rennen heute - die Damenabfahrt musste auch abgesagt werden!!! Photo: ÖSV Ladies Skiteam Austria

This means that the season’s downhill title will go to Aksel Lund Svindal making it his ninth globe during his career. The Norwegian Viking had a 58 point advantage over defending champion Klaus Kroell of Austria going into the Finals' week. The other contestants for the season title were the Kitzbuehel winner Dominik Paris of Italy and his teammate Christof Innerhofer who were 61 points and 69 points behind, respectively.

The last Norwegian to take the DH title was Lasse Kjus in 1999 but today Svindal became the first Norwegian to take both the DH and SG in the same season. Only six other men in the history of skiracing have achieved the feat.

Due to the unfortunate cancellation of the season’s last DH, Svindal wins the title of the best downhill racer of the season. Even though he won his second globe this season, Svindal lost the opportunity to score valuable points towards the overall where he trails Austria’s Marcel Hirscher by 149 points. Svindal has already confirmed the season title in the super-G after his second place in the Kvitfjel super-G and a victory in tomorrow’s race would still put him in the running for the large globe although Hirscher too will be at the start in the last SG race of the season, his second during the 2012/13 campaign.

FISalpine.com
Wednesday 13 March 2013

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