Wengen: Matt wins super combi; Ligety 10th      
 
Sunday, 14 January 2007  WENGEN, Switzerland — Mario Matt won a World Cup super combi on Sunday, benefiting from being the first skier down the slalom course.
    The Austrian slalom specialist completed the race — composed of a downhill leg and a slalom run — in a combined time of 2 minutes, 27.87 seconds to collect his first World Cup victory in almost two years.
    ''This means a lot to me. I'm elated,'' said Matt, who last season struggled after switching from slalom specialist to all-around skier. ''Last year was very hard for me. It was a big change for me and I also had problems with my slalom equipment. It was not a good year.''
    Marc Berthod, the surprise winner of a slalom in nearby Adelboden last week, took second in 2:28.25. Swiss teammate Silvan Zurbriggen was third in 2:28.28.
    Ivica Kostelic, winner of the last super combi at Reiteralm, Austria, was fourth in 2:28.48.
    Matt was 34th in the morning downhill leg on the Lauberhorn course, and therefore should have run 34th the slalom. But four racers ahead of him withdrew from the race — including Austrian teammates Hermann Maier and Georg Streitberger — boosting him into 30th position.
    Because the top 30 skied the slalom in reverse order, Matt was the first down a Jungfrau course that had been affected by rain and warm weather all week.
    The slalom course became increasingly chopped up with later skiers having to negotiate deep ruts.
    "It was definitely an advantage for me to start first in the slalom. I knew if I could do a good slalom, I could finish in the top five or even make a podium,'' Matt said. ''But still, in Wengen the downhill is very long and as a slalom skier you need to show guts to ski the tough sections and you have to take a lot of risks.
    ''As a slalom skier you have to make sure you don't lose too much time in the downhill.''
    Organizers had replaced a scheduled slalom with a super combi, believing the course would not hold up under two runs. Brown soil could be seen through the thin layer of deteriorating snow.
    At 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles), the Lauberhorn is the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit and one of the most physically demanding slopes. Though shortened by 258 meters (846.46 feet) because of fog at the top of the mountain, it was still a grind for the slalom skiers, accustomed to short, quick runs.
    Peter Fill of Italy, who posted the fastest time in the downhill leg, finished 21st, 2.38 back.
    Bode Miller, the winner of Saturday's downhill, was second going into the slalom leg but straddled an early gate after getting caught in the deep ruts.
    Miller has yet to complete either a slalom or combined event this season, though bad luck has been a big factor.
    Looking increasingly fast in the twisty discipline, he lost a ski in the second run of a slalom in Adelboden.
    Starting next week in Val d'Isere, France, the super combi rules will change. Starting then, rankings from the downhill will not change even if skiers withdraw. Those who finish outside the top 30 in the downhill will be forced to run after the top group in the slalom.
    Had those rules applied Sunday, Matt would have started the slalom in 30th position, on snow already used by 29 other skiers.
    Matt's last World Cup win came in a slalom at the finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in March 2005. It marked his first podium in a World Cup combined event.   
    Two years ago, Matt moved from the slalom squad to the famous WC4 team filled with great allrounders such as Hermann Maier, Michael Walchhofer and Benjamin Raich, but he needed more time than planned to find his best rhythm.
    The 28-year-old could not do better than fourth in slalom and 14th in a super combined last season, quite disappointing results for him. Last summer, he changed his boot supplier to Nordica.
    “This season is really excellent, I’m so pleased by my great form,” said 23-year-old Berthod, who was second in a super combi at Beaver Creek earlier this season.
    “To make the podium for the second time in a week, and again in front of the home fans, is wonderful,” Berthod said. “It also gives me a lot of confidence for the upcoming races because I know I can still do more. It’s exciting to have this red jersey and I’ll do my best to keep it as long as possible.”
    Kostelic will also travel to Val d’Isère after his strong performance Sunday that put him in third place in the super combined standings. “I think I made the best out of the situation, the slalom course was already in bad shape when I started and it was not possible to make up more time on Matt,” explained the skier from Zagreb, who clocked the second-best time in the slalom leg. “It’s just too bad it was not possible to race on the lower part of the downhill course which was in much better shape. It was surely an unfair race for most of us.”
    The super combi was initially scheduled for Friday, but it was postponed due to warm weather and rain. It replaced a slalom that was slated for Sunday. That slalom will be picked up later in the season.
    Olympic combined gold medalist Ted Ligety of the United States finished 10th, 1.21 off the pace.
    Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who was eighth, remained atop the World Cup overall standing with 703 points after 20 races. Didier Cuche of Switzerland is second with 651 points, while Miller is third with 640.
    Berthod took the lead in the World Cup combined standings from Svindal and leads with 173 points. Svindal dropped with second with 172 points, and Kostelic is third with 150.

— Patrick Lang and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Wengen: Classic Miller tames the Lauberhorn 
     
Saturday, 13 January 2007  WENGEN, Switzerland — Bode Miller blazed through the longest downhill on the World Cup tour Saturday, leading at every checkpoint and hitting nearly 90 mph at one stretch to capture the 77th Lauberhorn, succeeding former teammate and last year's winner, Daron Rahlves. It's Miller's 25th World Cup victory, putting him two behind American great Phil Mahre.
    Miller won his fourth race of the season — and his first-ever European World Cup downhill win — in 2 minutes, 28.89 seconds, crashing across the fiinish line on the relentless Wengen course. Switzerland's Didier Cuche was second, a whopping 0.65 seconds behind, and Italy's Peter Fill rounded out the podium, 1.47 seconds off the winning time.
    Defending World Cup downhill champion Michael Walchhofer, in bob No. 30, skied out to secure the win for the American.    
    Miller's win also ended a strange streak for U.S. skiers on the Lauberhorn. The Americans had waited 11 years between each downhill victory here before now.
    'It's tough. I knew I was pretty much going to crash in the finish if I skied the last 'S' like I wanted to,'' Miller said. ''I was pretty prepared for it.
    ''When you ski for 2 minutes, 30 seconds before that and you don't know how far you're going to jump, well, let's say I didn't have it in my head I was going to land on my feet.''
    At 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles), the Lauberhorn is the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit and also one of the most physically demanding slopes.
    The final ''S'' turn just before the finish line is a spectacularly difficult set of sharp curves. Skiers then end their run with a huge jump and land just meters before the finish line.
    Miller nailed the ''S'' section but appeared to have no strength left in his legs when he landed the jump, slumping to the ground and sliding across the finish line.
    He wasn't the only skier to fall across the finish. Austria's Fritz Strobl, the 2002 Olympic champion, and Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin of France also had scary crashes there.
   Walchhofer didn't make it near the bottom. He crashed near the top of the course, scraping along the nets for about 40 meters. The Austrian stumbled out of the starting hut after hitting his skis together. Then just 18 seconds into his run, he caught a ski in the safety netting and tumbled.
    Walchhofer was bruised and battered, and his elbow was sore, Austrian coach Toni Giger said. His participation in Sunday's super-combi is uncertain.
    Teammate Christoph Gruber complained of pain in his right knee following his seventh-place finish. He will be examined in Austria.   
    Cuche’s strong showing in front of his home fans maintained the recent upturn in performances by Switzerland’s skiers.
    “I was really nervous at the start and it was very emotional to be on the podium when the best I’ve ever managed before here was eighth,” said Cuche. “It’s certainly the best of all my second-place finishes this year. Bode was just out of reach though — it was one of his incredible race days where you cannot beat him. I’m sorry for Walchhofer but pleased that he didn’t get seriously injured. It’s good to increase my lead in the downhill standings but the season is still long.”
    The carnage started early in Saturday's race. Roland Fischnaller of Italy, the second skier out of the starting hut, crashed into the safety nets at the ''Austrian Hole,'' a deep dip in the course. He was taken off the hill by sled with torn right knee ligaments, organizers said.
    Canadian Vincent Lavoie suffered a concussion in a crash. In all, 11 competitors failed to finish. Italy's Peter Fill, who placed third, crossed the finish line at high speed and crashed into the safety padding when he tried to stop.  
    The final ''S'' turn has been the site of gruesome accidents over the years. In 1991, Austrian rookie Gernot Reinstadler died from massive internal injuries after crashing there. Adrien Duvillard of France suffered a serious head trauma in 1997 after hitting the fencing at more than 90 kph (55 mph).
    It marked Miller's second downhill win of the season, after his triumph at Beaver Creek, Colorado.
    American Steven Nyman was 11th, Ted Ligety 31st, Scott Macartney 36th, JJ Johnson 37th and T.J. Lanning 47th. Marco Sullivan did not finish.

Risky business
    “I took a huge amount of risk in some places and made it stick, so I feel good about that,” Miller said in the finish area. Temperatures were in the mid-30s and the strong sun softened the track; 11 skiers — a high number for a downhill — failed to finish their run.
    He tore out of the start and rolled down the 4.48 km course like an avalanche, gathering steam all the way. He was .32 ahead at the first interval, .43 at the second, then .56, .89 — hitting 144.4 kph (89.73 mph) through a speed trap, and finally 1.47 ahead when he crashed across the finish line.
    “I watched Daron win here last year and was pretty impressed — the way he skied and his intensity. After the training run [Thursday — where Cuche led and Miller was 17th] I knew I would have a hard time with it. It’s hard physically and hard mentally,” Miller said.
    “When I kicked out of the gate, I had the full intention of winning every section. I pushed everything the whole way down. To make the finish as I did [shaving nearly 1.5 seconds off the leader’s time] was awesome,” he said.
    Miller skied 26th and in a bizarre episode, Austrian champion Walchhofer, running 30th and the last serious challenger for him, stumbled out of the gate and skied off-course after dislodging the timing equipment and causing a brief delay.
    The sheer length of the course is demanding, Miller explained, but when the snow is soft — so soft Friday’s race was canceled — and the sun is shining, it becomes even tougher. And then there are the sporadic places where it’s icy in the shade, he said.
    “It’s hard, how physically tiring the course is. You ski back on your tails and you use more strength, and when you go from the sun to the shade, you also move to the back of the ski and that’s tiring,” Miller told reporters. “They did a great job to get this race off with this little snow ... and I’m pretty happy they did.”
    He crashed at the end of the track where there is a jump before the finish area. Saturday, he said, “I skied that straighter. I carried a huge amount of speed to the finish. …
    “All the parts I needed to do well I did well in,” he said. “I’ve been close to winning here but have missed it, in my mind, for mental errors. It’s unbelievably taxing. You just have to overpower your body and give it a try [in the final stretch]. You’re absolutely getting bad messages from your body to not make any more turns. Your body is saying ‘Go straight.’ ... I was gonna come off that last jump and go straight for the finish and then get on my butt [to slow down] as fast as I could.”
    “It was impressive, the way he went after it,” said head coach Phil McNichol. “Bode came out of the start and he was rolling right away. He held a clinic on how to ski the Lauberhorn.”
    The triumph was his fourth in downhill, his first in any venue outside of North America. Mahre, the all-time winningest U.S. skier, had 27 victories — all in slalom, giant slalom and combined — before retiring in 1984.
    “Bode did a fantastic job all through the top part and then the super G turns in the middle are where he must’ve been flying. Then he skied very aggressively on the bottom, especially for the bottom of a 2:30 downhill. He just laid one down; it was fantastic,” said men's DH head coach Chris Brigham.

Miller in overall hunt
    “And he’s skiing good slalom, and he’s fired up, so that could mean a big bounce back tomorrow for combined. He’s definitely fired up, though, with the overall [points race] a tight game with him.”
    Miller, the 2005 overall champion, stands third overall with 640 points; he leads the super G points. Cuche is second overall at 651 and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, who was eighth in the Lauberhorn race, leads with 671.
    Brigham said he was highly impressed by Nyman’s run. “It was fantastic for Steven — his second time here, and he struggled in the training run the others day, but he really took care of business today,” the coach said.

— Patrick Lang, USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report 

Altenmarkt: Mancuso, Kildow top super combi    

Sunday, 14 January 2007  ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow — who were 1-2 a month ago in a downhill won by Kildow in France — finished 1-2 in a World Cup super combined race Sunday with Resi Stiegler finishing fourth for the best World Cup finish by U.S. women in history.
    Mancuso, who was third Saturday in the downhill, and Kildow filled the top two spots in the downhill portion of the one-day super combined, which includes a run of downhill followed by one run of slalom. Stiegler, who is branching beyond her traditional gate-running strengths, was 14th in the DH.
    Mancuso's winning time was 2 minutes, 9.16 seconds with Kildow — producing the fourth-fastest slalom despite the softening snow — second in 2:09.22. World Cup leader Marlies Schild of Austria was third and Stiegler, who had the second-fastest leg of slalom, finished in 2:10.19. Stacey Cook was 20th.
    "What a great victory for me, but for the team also," Mancuso said. "This is one of the best days for American skiing since a very long time."
    Like since the 1984 Olympic GS when Americans Deb Armstrong, Christin Cooper and Tamara McKinney went one-two-four. Such a lofty result has never been accomplished by American women in a World Cup race. (U.S. men went 1-2-4 in Beaver Creek a year ago with Bode Miller, Daron Rahlves and Erik Schlopy — despite a broken hand — accomplishing the feat.)
    Mancuso and Kildow had led after the super G portion of the super-combi and made their placing stand-up while Stiegler got a little help when Anja Paerson was DQ'd in the slalom leg.

Teammates swap secrets of success
    "Resi and I just shared some secrets to help each of us," Mancuso laughed in the finish, as she referred to swapping her advice on running the downhill in return for Stiegler's tips on handling the slalom set. "I didn't make the mistakes I made yesterday. I didn't how fast I was going but I thought I could be top five."
    Mancuso had the fastest time in the lone training run Thursday and was on a course to possibly win Saturday's downhill until she misplayed a section at the bottom of the course, lost time and dropped to third. Sunday, she charged all the way, she said.
    At the finish, she rolled around on her back on the snow, her skis in the air and got up wearing a California-size smile. She told journalists her new slalom boots "were really the secret" to her strong slalom performance. "I didn't do my best slalom run but as you can see it was enough for me to make it across the finish line with the victory in my pocket."
    She said no one really had a good idea of what to expect from the slalom hill. "In inspection the snow had changed incredibly from the last few days to today, it was completely different snow.  Before it was kind of polar and the bottom was wetter so it had kind of frozen over and was that frozen spring snow and now it was melting like soft paste. It was crazy."
    She said she had rarely, if ever, started that far back in a slalom and was concerned looking down from the starhouse. "The first couple of gates looked like they were getting chewed up. It had been really slow in inspection, but it really held up well. I thought the groove would be a lot bigger and maybe some holes. … But I could ski my line. Resi was funny, saying 'This is sweet, like skiing California'."
    It's the second World Cup win of her career for the Olympic giant slalom champion, who took a downhill in Val d'Isere, France, before Christmas; Kildow was third in that one and the next day she won with Mancuso second.
    Being on the podium for a third time with Kildow "is so cool ... It's so much more fun for me when I can share the podium with a teammate," said the 22-year-old Lake Tahoe skier, who came up through the Squaw Valley racing program.

Kildow determined to finish DH this time
    Kildow, also 22 and who went out a day earlier on an icy turn, said she handled the tricky spot "by standing up — it wasn't fast for me, but today I made it to the finish. The conditions turned to soft and slushy [in the slalom], like spring conditions or summer training, but I ski well in that, so I just made sure to keep my feet underneath me and not slip. The slalom was pretty soft but they did a good job preparing the course. I tried to keep my feet in the ruts and work it because I wanted a solid run."
    The current World Cup downhill leader added, "It was really a little like my first run since I didn't make it down in training and crashed yesterday. It was a little conservative; I know I can ski faster but my goal today was to be in the finish."
    With only Schild breaking up the American surge, Stiegler, 21, whose father is Austrian Olympic champion and multi-medalist Pepi Stiegler, said, "We've only got one Austrian to get out of the way and we can sweep [the combined] at Worlds. We can do it!" Kildow added, "I think we can, too. She was so close [to the podium] Resi's skiing downhill so well now and if we all ski as we can, we could do it."
    Head coach Patrick Riml was almost shell-shocked. "It's unbelievable what happened, just unbelievable. If you asked me at breakfast if we could go 1-2-4 I would have said that's wishful thinking; in the last combined, Julia and Lindsey were sick. We know our girls can be in there if they're skiing well, but this is crazy ... just so great because we all know this is within their skill.
    "Resi's improved so much in speed. Every day she's getting more comfortable and today she had a great downhill and then, even in the middle of the [start] pack, she was outstanding ... second best run. Obviously, for Julia — if you win you've done a helluva job, and she did ... and Lindsey was skiing amazing.
    It is the second time this season Mancuso and Kildow have been 1-2, with Kildow winning the second of two downhills at Val d'Isere with Mancuso secoond.   

Riml: Don't forget Cook's performance
    "It's never easy after you crash in a downhill, like Lindsey did. But her downhill was so good and then her slalom showed her real potential," Riml said. "She says she didn't push that downhill but she was second so you know she was charging all the way but also wanted to play it a little conservative ...   
    "And let's not overlook Stacey. She was super in slalom, just a helluva run for her."
    The next women's races are in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with a super G Friday, downhill Saturday and giant slalom Sunday.
 

Altenmarkt: Goetschl tops, Mancuso 3rd in downhill       

Saturday, 13 January 2007  ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — Renate Goetschl claimed her 41st career World Cup victory Saturday by winning the women's downhill.
    The 31-year-old Austrian finished in 1 minute, 19.32 seconds, 0.23 better than Dominique Gisin of Switzerland.
    Olympic GS champion Julia Mancuso of the United States was third, 0.30 seconds behind Goetschl.
    ''This was just a perfect race for me,'' said Goetschl, who also has two super G wins this season. ''Everything went so well. I can't name a point on the course where I could have gone any faster.''
    Mancuso led the race until the final jump just before the finish, where she lost balance.
    ''I leaned backward too much and lost some speed after the landing. Otherwise, I probably would have won, but I am still happy with my performance and the third spot.''
    World Cup discipline leader Lindsey Kildow of the United States was 0.50 seconds faster than Goetschl on the first part of the course. But she did not finish after losing control of her left ski and crashing. She was uninjured.
    ''This is sad,'' Kildow said. ''I am very disappointed as I know I could have done so well on this course. Of course, I am glad to be OK after the crash, but this cost me a whole lot of points.''
    Kildow did not blame herself for crashing out. ''It was not my fault,'' she said. ''There was just a very icy point on the course and there was not much I could about that.''
    Gisin's second place marked her career-best achievement, after finishing ninth in the Val d'Isere downhill last December.
    Gisin was the only skier who started in Friday's downhill before that race got called off due to strong winds.
    ''That turned out to be a good practice run for today's race,'' Gisin said. ''I liked the jumps in the course, and I think that's where I won time to most other skiers.''
    Goetschl's victory marked the first women's World Cup downhill win by an Austrian skier for almost a year. Goetschl also won in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 28, 2006.
    Despite not finishing, Kildow kept her lead in the downhill standings with 340 points. Goetschl is second with 325. Mancuo is third with 266.
    Austria's Marlies Schild, who finished 11th, maintained her lead in the overall World Cup standings with 821 points, ahead of compatriots Nicole Hosp with 708 and Kathrin Zettel with 562.
    Zettel had missed the only downhill training Thursday due to illness and was therefore not allowed to start in Saturday's race.
    Goetschl moved to fourth position with 541, Kildow is fifth with 448.

Mancuso on DH roll
    "I tried to set up on this one gate [at the bottom] where I'd skied aggressively in training," Mancuso said. "I think it was a bad idea. I tried to be more patient and it didn't work."
    "I've been skiing really well and I surprised myself more in training than today. It was a fast in the middle and bumpy on the bottom," said Mancuso, who earned her first World Cup victory in a downhill last month. "I felt so comfortable on my skis."
    She called it "a good decision" to lower the start because of high winds again at the top of the course.
    Three other U.S. women broke into the top 30 with Stacey Cook 16th, Kirsten Clark 20th and Resi Stiegler, starting 54th, placing 28th for the first downhill points of her career.
    Head coach Patrick Riml — back on tour after being home a week ago for the birth of his first child, daughter Raina James Riml — was pleased with three women in the top 20 and Stiegler's finest downhill result.
    "Julia's on the podium again, obviously doing a hell of a job. In the last downhills, she's been first, second and third, which is outstanding. And it's an outstanding result for Resi ... and I think it's a fair result for Stacey and Kirsten ... but, for Stacey, who's struggled a bit after being fourth Dec. 1 in Lake Louise [Alberta], it's good to see her back in there like that."
    Kildow, running 30th, was a half-second ahead of Goetschl, who skied 29th, when she went off-course and into the safety nets. "To be that far ahead after 26 seconds is really something, but too bad she couldn't finish. Still, she's the leader, so that's a positive," he said. "There's a right-footer [left-hand turn] where it's icy and Lindsey just slipped and went out. She was really going."
    The race originally was to have been a super combined, but when high winds Friday stopped the DH, organizers pushed back the downhill to Saturday and rescheduled the super combi for Sunday. The super G originally set for Sunday will be rescheduled for another location later in the season.
    After Friday's cancellation, the downhill race replaced a super combi, which will now be held on Sunday.