Lindsey Vonn scored her second downhill event victory of the season with a strong run in Zauchensee on Saturday. She won ahead of Kajsa Vickhoff Lie in second and Jacqueline Wiles in third. The Super-G, which was supposed to take place on Sunday was cancelled due to strong snowfall and wind.
by Maciej Jackiewicz
Downhill
The fourth downhill of the season for the women’s World Cup took place on the 1755-metre and rather flowing Kälberloch course. It started off with Corinne Suter’s 1:07.34, but the first time good enough for the top ten was set by Romane Miradoli with Bib 3, that beat Suter by 0.37 seconds. She did not last at the top for long, however, as first Kajsa Vickhoff Lie set a time 0.36 seconds faster than Miradoli to take the lead, and later the season dominator in downhill Lindsey Vonn went down the track 0.37 seconds faster than the Norwegian. This ultimately proved enough to secure her second World Cup win of the season. But the battle for the podium was still on. Laura Pirovano with Bib 10 set a time that put her in third, but in the end it was Jacqueline Wiles, who with a time 0.48 seconds slower than Vonn, scored the bronze medal in Zauchensee for the second time in her career.
One of the headlines of the race was unfortunately the nasty crash of Magdelena Egger. The 24-year-old Austrian, who scored her first World Cup podium this season in Sankt Moritz, fell in one of the left turns which caused a long break in the competition. It did not look good from the start, and Egger had to be taken from the course by a helicopter. Later, an anterior cruciate ligament injury was detected, ending Egger’s dreams for an Olympic appearance in Milano-Cortina. She was not the only one to not finish, as the 25-year-old Norwegian Marte Monsen missed one of the gates in the beginning of the run.
Camille Cerutti from France was the highest bib that scored points in the downhill. The French woman, after an amazing fifth position scored in the Val d’Isère Super-G, continued with the good form in Austria, with a 21st place and a time just a second slower than the winner and World Cup leader. Other impressive result was the one of Janine Schmitt, who with Bib 24 and the best World Cup result up to Zauchensee of 17th, finished the competition in fifth position, just 0.16 seconds off the podium – a very impressive run from the 25-year-old Swiss, especially at a time when Switzerland lacks a regular top-ten downhill contender.
After the Zauchensee event, Lindsey Vonn stays in the lead of the downhill World Cup standings, with a respectable 129-point gap over Emma Aicher, as the German finished only sixth in the Austrian Alps. Third, despite not scoring a single podium, is Laura Pirovano, ahead of the Val d’Isère winner Cornelia Hütter and her compatriot and teammate Sofia Goggia.
Results
| Session | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Full results |
| Downhill | Lindsey Vonn, 1:06.24 | Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, +0.37s | Jacqueline Wiles, +0.48s | Here |
| Super-G | Cancelled due to strong snowfall and wind | |||
What’s next?
The women’s Alpine Ski World Cup doesn’t slow down after Zauchensee, as just two days after the cancelled Super-G – on 13 January – the technical stars of alpine skiing will compete in the night slalom in neighbouring Flachau. The speed disciplines will be back this week as well, as both downhill and Super-G return on the Erta course on 17–18 January in Kronplatz, Italy.
Header photo credit: World Cup Sankt Moritz
Leave a comment