Americans roll to season-best downhill results
In this final week of speed events prior to the Olympic Winter Games, the Americans stepped it up to another level, recording their most encouraging results of the season in the downhill at Cortina d’Ampezzo on Friday.
Stacey Cook, finishing fifth, threw down her best career result outside of Lake Louise, a milder track that bears little resemblance to Cortina. It comes just a day after Cook’s first super G top 10 (ninth) since 2007.
“I generally do OK when there are straight shots out of the gate like that. So that was a little confidence booster to kick out of the gate, get on my skis and not have to do too much and then get into it,” said Cook. “And then I just tried to not ski a perfect line but ski perfect body position and really attack. And it seems to have been fast.”
Julia Mancuso also recorded a season-best downhill finish of ninth, while Laurenne Ross skied by far her best race of the year to finish 17th. Running 30th, Leanne Smith skied a clean run to finish 23rd.
But perhaps the result of the day for the Americans was 21-year-old C Team member Jacqueline Wiles, wearing bib 41, who busted out a career best result of 15th, scoring World Cup points for the first time and adding her name to the conversation for Olympic consideration.
The race was delayed by a half-hour due to overnight snow. Course workers did a fine job preparing the track, but the start was lowered by 400 meters to just above the Olympia delle Tofane chute. There was a harsh right-footer not too far down that gave many of the ladies a tough time, including Thursday’s super G winner Elisabeth Goergl, who landed in the nets but appeared uninjured.
Not unlike other occasions this season, the day was all about overall leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who thanks to a beautiful mid-air turn on the crucial upper section finished with a time of 1 minute, 17.84 seconds, faster by three-tenths over the field.
“It was not an easy race,” said Hoefl-Riesch. “I knew I had to attack a lot and push to the limit. That’s what I did. There were some difficult turns where some girls had big problems. But for me it went fine and that’s a big day.” She continued, “I am strong on this course. But mistakes can happen anytime to anyone. I always try to perform the best I can and when no mistake happen like today, it feels good but that is for sure not that easy to do.”
Tina Weirather was quickest out of the start, clean through the technical sections and carried speed nicely through the bottom, good enough for second place and her sixth podium of the season.
“Cortina has always been a bit different for me,” said Weirather. “I don’t (know) why but I always have been a little bit nervous and felt more pressure here than anywhere else. Therefore I am super happy I had two great races already this week and that there are still two to come.”
Another back-of-the-pack surprise was Austria’s Nicole Schmidhofer, perhaps eyeing an Olympic invite, racing from a start position of 39th to secure third place, just barely knocking Lara Gut off the podium by one hundredth of a second.
For the American speed team, there were plenty of smiles to go around at the base of the hill; clearly, it was their best collective result of the season — a season in which they’ve been accused of struggling on more than one occasion.
Mancuso and Cook ran with back-to-back starts in bibs 12 and 13. For the veterans, they were two very solid, clean runs from top to bottom, aggressive over their skis and aerodynamic. Likewise, Laurenne Ross was able to make an athletic recovery off the upper jump, landing on the inside ski. She really stuck her nose into it for the rest of the run to pick up her best result since grabbing the podium in Garmisch last March.
View more photos from this race in our gallery.
The Scoop
By Hank McKee
Women’s World Cup downhill, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 24, 2014
Equipment – Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Hoefl-Riesch, Head/Lange/Head
2 Weirather, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Schmidhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Gut, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Cook, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Fenninger, Head/Head/Head
7 Maze, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
8 Merighetti, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
9 Mancuso, Head/Head/Head
10 Fischbacher, Voelkl/Fischer/Marker
Women’s World Cup downhill, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 24, 2014. … It is the 21st of 32 races on the women’s schedule. … The sixth of nine scheduled downhills and first of two to be held at Cortina this season. It is the 90th World Cup race hosted at Cortina… the 36th downhill.
It is the 27th career World Cup win for Maria Hoefl-Riesch. … She is second on the all-time victory list for Germans, behind only Katja Seizinger (36). … It is her 11th career DH win and her second at Cortina (also in 2011).
It is the 14th career World Cup podium for Tina Weirather. … Her seventh of the season. … She matches her mother’s best result at Cortina and tops her dad’s best at the site.
It is the second career World Cup podium for Nicole Schmidhofer the first a second-place finish also in Cortina (super G) a year ago.
It is the best European result ever for Stacey Cook. … She owns two second places from Lake Louise and was also fifth in Are. It is her second top 10 in two days. … It is also the second top 10 in two days for Julia Mancuso. … It is the first career scoring result for Jacqueline Wiles. … It is the fourth score of the season for Laurenne Ross, the third in DH… the sixth for Leanne Smith.
Hoefl-Riesch leads the women’s World Cup overall standings 961-803 over Weirather. … Anna Fenninger (sixth in race) is third overall with 794pts. … American Mikaela Shiffrin (did not race) is fifth overall with 614pts and Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon (did not race) is seventh with 453pts.
Hoefl-Riesch leads the donhill standings 425-340 over Weirather with Maria Kaufmann-Abserhalden third with 309pts. … Larisa Yurkiw leads Canada in the downhill standings in 14th with 99pts. … Stacey Cook leads the US in 17th with 88pts.
Austria leads the womens Nations Cup 3701-1987 over Switzerland. … Sweden is third with 1701. … The U.S. is fifth with 1205pts and Canada ninth with 171pts.
Results — Downhill, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Jan. 24
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Total Time | Diff. | FIS Points | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | 206001 | HOEFL-RIESCH Maria | 1984 | GER | 1:17.84 | 0.00 | |||
2 | 21 | 355050 | WEIRATHER Tina | 1989 | LIE | 1:18.15 | +0.31 | 5.46 | ||
3 | 39 | 55970 | SCHMIDHOFER Nicole | 1989 | AUT | 1:18.59 | +0.75 | 13.20 | ||
4 | 20 | 516138 | GUT Lara | 1991 | SUI | 1:18.60 | +0.76 | 13.38 | ||
5 | 13 | 537582 | COOK Stacey | 1984 | USA | 1:18.62 | +0.78 | 13.73 | ||
6 | 18 | 55947 | FENNINGER Anna | 1989 | AUT | 1:18.66 | +0.82 | 14.43 | ||
7 | 19 | 565243 | MAZE Tina | 1983 | SLO | 1:18.76 | +0.92 | 16.19 | ||
8 | 6 | 296008 | MERIGHETTI Daniela | 1981 | ITA | 1:18.89 | +1.05 | 18.48 | ||
9 | 12 | 537545 | MANCUSO Julia | 1984 | USA | 1:18.95 | +1.11 | 19.54 | ||
10 | 25 | 55750 | FISCHBACHER Andrea | 1985 | AUT | 1:19.01 | +1.17 | 20.59 | ||
11 | 15 | 296472 | FANCHINI Elena | 1985 | ITA | 1:19.22 | +1.38 | 24.29 | ||
12 | 8 | 515747 | GISIN Dominique | 1985 | SUI | 1:19.23 | +1.39 | 24.46 | ||
13 | 10 | 55766 | STERZ Regina | 1985 | AUT | 1:19.27 | +1.43 | 25.17 | ||
14 | 17 | 515782 | KAUFMANN-ABDERHALDEN Marianne | 1986 | SUI | 1:19.29 | +1.45 | 25.52 | ||
15 | 41 | 539536 | WILES Jacqueline | 1992 | USA | 1:19.40 | +1.56 | 27.46 | ||
16 | 28 | 296431 | STUFFER Verena | 1984 | ITA | 1:19.41 | +1.57 | 27.63 | ||
17 | 4 | 538573 | ROSS Laurenne | 1988 | USA | 1:19.43 | +1.59 | 27.98 | ||
18 | 45 | 245066 | MIKLOS Edit | 1988 | HUN | 1:19.47 | +1.63 | 28.69 | ||
18 | 38 | 565320 | FERK Marusa | 1988 | SLO | 1:19.47 | +1.63 | 28.69 | ||
18 | 7 | 505886 | KLING Kajsa | 1988 | SWE | 1:19.47 | +1.63 | 28.69 | ||
21 | 14 | 55913 | MOSER Stefanie | 1988 | AUT | 1:19.49 | +1.65 | 29.04 | ||
22 | 9 | 495318 | RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina | 1981 | SPA | 1:19.52 | +1.68 | 29.57 | ||
23 | 1 | 56128 | HUETTER Cornelia | 1992 | AUT | 1:19.63 | +1.79 | 31.50 | ||
24 | 3 | 515766 | SUTER Fabienne | 1985 | SUI | 1:19.65 | +1.81 | 31.86 | ||
25 | 30 | 538305 | SMITH Leanne | 1987 | USA | 1:19.66 | +1.82 | 32.03 | ||
26 | 34 | 155563 | KRIZOVA Klara | 1989 | CZE | 1:19.71 | +1.87 | 32.91 | ||
26 | 26 | 296729 | FANCHINI Nadia | 1986 | ITA | 1:19.71 | +1.87 | 32.91 | ||
28 | 32 | 425929 | MOWINCKEL Ragnhild | 1992 | NOR | 1:19.81 | +1.97 | 34.67 | ||
29 | 2 | 196460 | MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie | 1985 | FRA | 1:19.84 | +2.00 | 35.20 | ||
30 | 24 | 425880 | SEJERSTED Lotte Smiseth | 1991 | NOR | 1:19.88 | +2.04 | 35.90 | ||
30 | 23 | 296427 | SCHNARF Johanna | 1984 | ITA | 1:19.88 | +2.04 | 35.90 | ||
30 | 5 | 515573 | AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi | 1981 | SUI | 1:19.88 | +2.04 | 35.90 | ||
33 | 40 | 297910 | CURTONI Elena | 1991 | ITA | 1:19.96 | +2.12 | 37.31 | ||
34 | 36 | 56177 | VENIER Stephanie | 1993 | AUT | 1:20.07 | +2.23 | 39.25 | ||
35 | 35 | 297702 | MARSAGLIA Francesca | 1990 | ITA | 1:20.43 | +2.59 | 45.58 | ||
36 | 49 | 375018 | COLETTI Alexandra | 1983 | MON | 1:20.46 | +2.62 | 46.11 | ||
37 | 33 | 516219 | NUFER Priska | 1992 | SUI | 1:20.63 | +2.79 | 49.10 | ||
38 | 37 | 197295 | PIOT Jennifer | 1992 | FRA | 1:20.68 | +2.84 | 49.98 | ||
39 | 31 | 55690 | HOSP Nicole | 1983 | AUT | 1:20.70 | +2.86 | 50.34 | ||
40 | 47 | 538855 | FORD Julia | 1990 | USA | 1:20.71 | +2.87 | 50.51 | ||
41 | 50 | 225206 | ALCOTT Chemmy | 1982 | GBR | 1:20.86 | +3.02 | 53.15 | ||
42 | 43 | 298694 | PICHLER Karoline | 1994 | ITA | 1:20.90 | +3.06 | 53.86 | ||
43 | 48 | 55818 | KOEHLE Stefanie | 1986 | AUT | 1:20.97 | +3.13 | 55.09 | ||
44 | 52 | 107312 | ROTH Julia | 1993 | CAN | 1:20.98 | +3.14 | 55.26 | ||
Did not start 1st run | ||||||||||
51 | 505632 | LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica | 1984 | SWE | ||||||
42 | 56087 | SIEBENHOFER Ramona | 1991 | AUT | ||||||
29 | 106849 | YURKIW Larisa | 1988 | CAN | ||||||
Did not finish 1st run | ||||||||||
46 | 197006 | GAUTHIER Marine | 1990 | FRA | ||||||
44 | 515997 | FEIERABEND Denise | 1989 | SUI | ||||||
27 | 205218 | REBENSBURG Viktoria | 1989 | GER | ||||||
22 | 55576 | GOERGL Elisabeth | 1981 | AUT | ||||||
11 | 515806 | JNGLIN-KAMER Nadja | 1986 | SUI |