ALPINE SKI. Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy – American Lindsey Vonn raced to her career 37th World Cup downhill victory on Saturday, breaking Annemarie Moser-Pröll's (AUT) record.

Lindsey Vonn of USA celebrates during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Downhill on January 23, 2016 in Cortina dÕAmpezzo, Italy. (Photo by Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom)

Vonn timed 1:37.01 down the Olympia delle Tofane course in the majestic Italian Dolomites to lead Canada’s Larisa Yurkiw by 0.28 and Switzerland's Lara Gut by 0.67 seconds.

The race was held under bright sunshine like for both training runs, but had to be interrupted by the wind on a couple of occasions.

“The more people talk about the records the harder it is to break them, so I try to stay focused on skiing, and I thought I skied really well on the top and went a little too straight at the bottom, but still was able to pull it off,” Vonn told reporters. “You know it’s always tricky with these conditions. The wind was going back and forth, and some people got head wind and some people got tail wind and I’m just really happy that I was able to come away with another win and another record.”

Lindsey Vonn of USA competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Downhill on January 23, 2016 in Cortina dÕAmpezzo, Italy. (Photo by Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom)

In the hunt for the overall, Vonn is now only 10 points behind Lara Gut (810).

“We have a lot of races left to go. I’m not getting ahead of myself. Just taking it one day at a time,” explained Vonn. “I think it’s good too that I have my new dog Lucy. It kind of gives me that little bit of a reset button. She’s happy to see me every time I come home and it makes being over Europe that much easier to handle. And I think that’ll give me mentally an edge coming in the next two months.”

27-year-old Larisa Yurkiw raced to her third consecutive podium in downhill this season, her career-fourth. She earned her first World Cup podium on the same slope one year ago.

“Yeah, the season is going really well," said Yurkiw. "I’m just trying to keep my head down, and keep working hard. And the results are something I’m really grateful for, but there’s a lot of deserving people on the circuit.”

Lara Gut landed her first downhill podium in Cortina, after a solid and clean run, and admitted she felt like she benefited from a tail wind in some portions of the course.

"I am happy about the way I ski, but this race is like that. It’s an outdoor sport, sometimes you get lucky and you don’t get wind and other times, just trying to find a way into the finish, so it was a good day for me, and I hope tomorrow is going to be even better and wind is going to stop.”

Larisa Yurkiw of Canada takes 2nd place, Lindsey Vonn of USA takes 1st place, Lara Gut of Switzerland takes 3rd place during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Downhill on January 23, 2016 in Cortina dÕAmpezzo, Italy. (Photo by Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom)

The victory gave Vonn a 122-point lead over runner-up of the day Larisa Yurkiw in the downhill standings after five of nine races this campaign.

Tina Weirather was fourth and Johanna Schnarf was fifth as the pair was respectively 1.01 and 1.06 seconds off the winning pace.

A super-G race, the third of the season, is scheduled to start tomorrow Sunday at 11:30 CET.

FIS alpine
23 January 2016 13:06

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