ALPINE SKI. Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria – American Lindsey Vonn celebrated her second World Cup victory of the weekend as she won the technically challenging second super-G of the season with a time of 1:12.75.
“It’s a perfect start to the new year,” Vonn said. “You know, I had a lot of confidence after Lake Louise and then in Val d’Isère I felt like I just kind of lost my confidence a little bit after going out in the downhill, so I went home. I had a good break and now I’m energized again. I feel really good mentally and physically, and I think that showed in this weekend’s racing. Hopefully, I can just continue on in this direction, keep the momentum going and hopefully, keep winning.”
Lindsey Vonn participated twice in the Altenmarkt-Zauchensee super-G, but didn't win any. She finished 13th in December 2004 and second in January 2011.
“It helps to have raced here many times, and I know technically where I need to make speed and the bottom part is always the most important and I think today and yesterday, I skied that part very well, and I’m extremely excited," Vonn continued. "You know, two wins in a weekend is amazing, and it’s the perfect start to the new year.”
It was Vonn’s 26th career World Cup victory in the discipline, which was already a record across men and women.
Overall World Cup Lara Gut, who failed to finish yesterday's downhill, was eager to put that disappointment behind and came in second place, 0.70 seconds adrift.
The Swiss ace really threatened Vonn's lead until the last intermediate time but made a mistake in the lower section.
“I am happy to be skiing well again in super-G. In Lake Louise, the only super-G we had, the way I skied it was terrible, so I’m happy to be back and do what I can. Sure I made a big mistake and I lost a lot of time in from the last split to the finish, but that’s skiing and it’s better to be second with a mistake than trying to win, but you have no idea what happened. I can work on that."
Austria's Cornelia Hütter continued her fine form and raced to her fourth podium this season. The 23-year-old is still chasing her first career World Cup victory.
With today’s win, Vonn climbed another 20 points closer to Gut who still leads 738-700.
“I’m not focused on the overall right now. It’s too early in the season. I’m just focused on winning. I want to win as many races as I can, and I think if I can do that it’ll put me in a good position for the overall title,” Vonn concluded.
The World Cup tour will now shift to Flachau (AUT) for three technical races scheduled this week.
FIS alpine 10 January 2016 13:54
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