Americans roll to season-best downhill results

By Published On: January 24th, 2014Comments Off on Americans roll to season-best downhill results
The day's winner Maria Hoefl-Riesch (GEPA)

The day’s winner Maria Hoefl-Riesch (GEPA)

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

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About the Author: Geoff Mintz

Geoff Mintz is a former alpine ski racer who cut his teeth at Ragged Mountain and Waterville Valley, N.H. After graduating from Holderness and UVM, he relocated to Colorado, where he worked on the hill prior to pursuing a career in journalism. Mintz served as associate editor for Ski Racing Media from 2011 to 2015. He later reconnected with his local roots to manage all marketing and communications for Ski & Snowboard Club Vail before resuming work at SRM as editor-in-chief.