Cortina: Goetschl edges Mancuso, Kildow DNF

Renate Goetschl of Austria won a World Cup downhill Saturday, stretching her record of wins at Cortina to 10. Goetschl skied down the 2.8-kilometer (1.7-mile) Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 31.14 seconds, 0.17 seconds faster than second-place Julia Mancuso of the United States, the winner of Friday's super G.
    Marie Marchand-Arvier of France was third, 0.60 seconds slower than Goetschl, for the best result of her career by far. Marchand-Arvier, 21, had previously never finished higher than 11th in a World Cup race.
    Lindsey Kildow of the United States, who had led the standings, fell during her run and did not finish. She was unhurt.

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Renate Goetschl of Austria won a World Cup downhill Saturday, stretching her record of wins at Cortina to 10.
    Goetschl skied down the 2.8-kilometer (1.7-mile) Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 31.14 seconds, 0.17 seconds faster than second-place Julia Mancuso of the United States, the winner of Friday's super G.
    Marie Marchand-Arvier of France was third, 0.60 seconds slower than Goetschl, for the best result of her career by far. Marchand-Arvier, 21, had previously never finished higher than 11th in a World Cup race.
    Lindsey Kildow of the United States, who had led the standings, fell during her run and did not finish. She was unhurt.
    ''My butt's going to be sore,'' Kildow said.
     Two-time overall champion Anja Paerson of Sweden finished fifth. Other Americans were Kirsten Clark in 15th, Stacey Cook in 19th, Libby Ludlow in 35th and Resi Stiegler in 41st.
    Goetschl now has five downhill victories and five super G wins at Cortina. The closest any other skier has come for wins at one resort was Ingemar Stenmark's eight wins at Madonna Di Campiglio.   
    ''Everyone was expecting me to win a 10th time. It was a lot of pressure for me,'' Goetschl said. ''This was good preparation for the World Championships. I'm elated I could handle it like this.''
    The worlds will be held in Are, Sweden Feb. 3-18.
    ''I like everything here — the hill is interesting start to finish and the atmosphere is really special,'' Goetschl said.
    Goetschl, 31, reiterated that she hasn't decided when she will retire. Goetschl now leads the downhill standings with 425 points, followed by Mancuso with 346 and Kildow with 340.
    Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp, the two Austrians who lead the overall World Cup standings, did not enter the downhill. They specialize in the technical events and will be favored in Sunday's giant slalom.
    Mancuso improved her third-place standing in the overall ranks. Schild leads with 881 points, Hosp has 828 and Mancuso now has 714.
    ''It's kind of like sky miles, when you're flying — collecting points for free trips,'' Mancuso said. ''I just get excited about collecting the points. I don't really think about the overall or beating anyone else. It's cool just to be adding them up and getting more.

Mancuso having fun
    "The snow is really soft, but it's not too bad," Mancuso said. "It's only soft from halfway down; the top is totally sweet. It's a little confusing, though, with all the blue dye in the snow" to help racers with the outline of the course. At one point, she told journalists, she almost went on the wrong side of a gate.
    Mancuso, the Olympic giant slalom champion — who will run GS Sunday in Cortina — said she is racing with great confidence because of her equipment and the appeal of Cortina's big-mountain challenge.
    "I don't know what it is, but, really, it's all about skiing. It flows so well here. There are some open sections and lots of turns … and fun going high speed. It's not super technical," she explained.
    With temperatures well above freezing (7 C, 45 F), the course conditions continued to soften; Friday's race was run more than three hours after its scheduled start because of rains which raked this region of the Dolomites. "It's pretty slushy from midway down," Mancuso said.
    "I was ready for the bumps. It's been bumpy every day in training and I expected conditions to be similar to super G, but they held up better today — probably because we started earlier," she added.
    Women's speed head coach Alex Hoedlmoser said Mancuso's continued success is feeding on itself. "She has to have fun, and when that comes, as it has this last month, she could be on the podium every race."
    Course conditions ranged from stable at the top, according to Hoedlmoser, to "peely" in the middle and slushy at the bottom. "Yeah, the dye was all over. We had downhill training, then the super G and in the flat light today, they put tons of dye. There's usually not as much."   
    Mancuso lost a bet with a team trainer and was forced to wear a traditional Austrian folk dress — called a Dirndl — on the victory podium Friday night.
    ''We decided after I won in Altenmarkt that we need podium outfits. So I went and got a Dirndl,'' Mancuso said. ''If I win, that's my first-place outfit.''
    Mancuso's teammate Lindsey Kildow fell twice during her run, but was not injured.
    "My butt's going to be sore, that's all,'' she said. ''I was just trying to turn the ski too aggressively and I lost control.''
    Kildow had the lead by .11 at the first interval, but then went down on the upper part of the course, righted herself and then skied out. Kildow was attacking from the start, Hoedlmoser said, and after she went down and came back up, she lost speed "and was pushing her line to make up for it, and she made another mistake" and crashed out, but was uninjured.
    The women complete their three-day visit to Cortina, site of the 1956 Olympic Winter Games, Sunday with a giant slalom.

— The Associated Press and USSA contributed to this report

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's downhill, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 20, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Goetschl, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
3 Marchand-Arvier, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Merighetti, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
6 Borghi, Fischer/Lange/Tyrolia
7 Jacquemod, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8 Gisin, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
9 Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Look
10 Fischbacher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Women's downhill, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 20, 2007. … It is the 20th race of the women's 37-event World Cup schedule. … The sixth of nine schedule
d downhills. … It is the second of three scheduled races at Cortina. … It is the 28th World Cup DH at Cortina.
    It is the 42nd career win for Renate Goetschl (seventh all time). … Her 22nd in DH (third all time). … It is her fourth win of the season. … Second in DH. … It is her 10th win and 21st podium at Cortina. … She has won five Cortina DHs, one each in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. … She has been no worse than fourth in her last eight races.
    It is the ninth career podium for Julia Mancuso. … Her fourth straight podium. … It is the third time she has been second at Cortina, the second time to Goetschl in DH.
    It is the first career podium for Marie Marchand-Arvier. … It is the best World Cup DH result in two seasons for France, the last podium a second from Ingrid Jacquemod March 10, 2005.
    Kirsten Clark matches her second-best result of the season in 15th. … Emily Brydon matches her fifth-best Cortina result in 16th. … It is the career-best DH result for Britt Janyk, her second-best placing for the season all disciplines. … It is the third-best placing of the season for Stacey Cook. … It is the worst placing of eight scoring finishes this season for Kelly VanderBeek.
    Marlies Schild (did not race) maintains the lead of the overall standings 881-828 over Nicole Hosp (did not race). … Julia Mancuso moves up to third at 714 with Goetschl now fourth at 701 and Lindsey Kildow fifth at 578. … Goetschl takes the lead in the DH standings 425-346 over Mancuso with Kildow dropping to third at 340. … Winning margin is .17 of a second. … Top six skiers are within a second of the winner. … Top 26 within two seconds.

Cortina women's World Cup downhill results

Did not start 1st run:
ROBNIK Petra (SLO), WIRTH Katja (AUT), SIMARD Genevieve (CAN)

Did not finish 1st run:
RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina (SPA), COLETTI Alexandra (MON), STEMMER Stefanie (GER), WOLF Tamara (SUI), WEYRICH Clothilde (FRA), KILDOW Lindsey C (USA), CASANOVA Carmen (SUI)