Brace yourself, you’re about to see double

Thursday’s training run for the women’s World Cup downhill in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, went off as most training runs do on the circuit: 65 women ran the course, snow conditions were good and Lindsey Vonn stood up through the final gates of the course. And while the three-week break for the speed skiers does not seem to have slowed any of the women down, there is something very different about this downhill.

It’s only 25 gates long down 1,600 meters, a sprint downhill. A full-length downhill on this track typically runs around 44 gates over 3,000 meters. To make up for the gate discrepancy, the women will be run twice on the track this Saturday just like in a technical event, with a top 30 flip for the second run. However, the course will not be reset for second run and there will only be the morning inspection. 

In the first training run, Tina Weirather of Lichtenstein was the fastest down the course by a scant 0.06 seconds, just barely ahead of Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer.

“This is something special to come down to the finish and not to be too exhausted,” Weirather said of the shortened course. “It’s something new. I think it will be very entertaining for the spectators and viewers to have two runs.”

Lindsey Vonn’s 2011 victory in Zauchensee.

American Lindsey Vonn appears to be back in form and eager to repeat her win from 2011 after coming in third in the training run – a mere 0.11 seconds behind Weirather and 0.35 ahead of Lara Gut of Switzerland, who won the most recent downhill race this season.  

“A sprint downhill is interesting and something different, because you get to race a second run,” Vonn commented. “So, if you are a little bit behind or make a mistake in the first run, you can still make up some time. The course set is the same for both runs, not like slalom or giant slalom. So it gives you another chance to improve. I did it once in Are 15 years ago … and I am really looking forward to doing it again on Saturday.”

Missing from the start haus was Austria’s Fabienne Suter, who is tied with Vonn for the lead in the overall downhill standings. She reportedly tore a muscle in her left knee during giant slalom training this week and will not be able to start in Zauchenesee. Doctors are currently unsure of when she’ll return to competition. 

Corinne Suter of Austria had a frightening training run when she skied too directly into a compression and crashed. Luckily, she escaped without injury and was able to finish her run, clocking in at over 15 seconds behind Weirather’s pace.

The women have another training run Friday, set to start at 11:30 am CET followed by the race on Saturday.

Official Results