Lindsey Vonn went down hard near the bottom of the course during the first run of the women's World Cup giant slalom in Lienz on Monday, injuring her left arm.
The World Cup overall leader was about nine gates from the bottom when her skis slid apart and she fell hard on her back and left arm and took several minutes to stand up. After standing, she skied gingerly to the bottom and medical personnel put her arm in a temporary sling.

"I'll see what they say at the hospital when I get it X-rayed, but I think it's broken," Vonn said after the run. "It was just a horrible crash."

World GS champion Kathrin Hoelzl, who won the GS in Aspen, is leading in Lienz after the first run with a finish time of 1 minute, 8.17 seconds. Austrian Michaela Kirchgasser is second in 1:08.58 and French skier Taina Barioz, who was fourth in the last World Cup GS in Are, is sitting in third (1:08.69).

Several racers said the top of the course was extremely icy but conditions near the bottom - where Vonn crashed - were grippy and unpredictable.

"The snow conditions change the whole way down," said Sarah Schleper, who is leading the Americans in 20th place after the first run. "There's some slick spots where they poured water and put the injection bar in and there are some grippy spots, so it's just a real skier's course. You just have to make it down."

Schleper said she had a similar crash to Vonn's while training on Sunday, cracking her helmet, and nearly went down herself in the first run, skidding onto her hip over the last break over.

"You come into this last pitch with a lot of heat and it actually slickens up quite a bit coming over," she said. "I was just trying to go for it and I  got back coming over that break over which is never a good position to be in. So I just fought to stay in there and got to the bottom."

Megan McJames is the only other North American still in the race, finishing 26th after the first run. Jessica Kelley, who said the course had turned sloppy by the time she ran No. 46, finished 40th, and Julia Mancuso lost a pole smacking a gate at the top of the course, nearly bringing her to a stop but she continued on down to finish 51st.

by Shauna Farnell
SkiRacing.com