Val d'Isere: Kildow 1st, Mancuso 2nd in DH

Lindsey Kildow won her second race of the season Wednesday to increase her lead atop the World Cup downhill standings.
    Americans took two podium places for a second straight day.
    Kildow's winning run of 1 minute, 38.06 seconds over the 2.5-kilometer (1.55-mile) course was 1.24 seconds faster than Julia Mancuso, who won Tuesday's downhill.

VAL D'ISERE, France — Lindsey Kildow won her second race of the season Wednesday to increase her lead atop the World Cup downhill standings.
    Americans took two podium places for a second straight day.
    Kildow's winning run of 1 minute, 38.06 seconds over the 2.5-kilometer (1.55-mile) course was 1.24 seconds faster than Julia Mancuso, who was coming off her first career World Cup win in Tuesday's downhill.
    ''That was a Christmas present for myself,'' Kildow said. ''It was a perfect day, I had absolutely no fear out there, it was just awesome. I knew what to do, I felt much more comfortable with the course, and I was on a mission today because I had some problems yesterday and in training on Monday.''
    Anja Paerson of Sweden finished third in 1:39.50, while Renate Goetschl of Austria was fourth, 1.51 seconds slower than Kildow.
     Kildow who finished third in Tuesday's race, leads the downhill standings with 340 points. The win was Kildow’s sixth, her second this season, and came almost a year to the day (Dec. 17, 2005) she won in another Val d’Isere downhill with Caroline Lalive in second place.
    "We can keep on rolling, all it takes is a little momentum," Mancuso said. "It's exciting. I'm stoked for everyone."
    Mancuso and Paerson both experienced problems on the technical Oreiller-Killy course.
    "I didn't ski as well as yesterday," Mancuso said. "I got bumped around a lot and the light was flat. But I still nailed a lot of sections and it feels really sweet to be in second."
    Paerson picked up valuable points heading into Thursday's slalom at Val d'Isere — where she will start among the favorites.
    "It was tougher to ski today," Paerson said. "It was a little darker today. I had a huge mistake at the bottom. I took a huge hit on the outside ski and had to go on my inside ski the whole way. I'm lucky I'm standing."
    Both Kildow and Mancuso jumped up a place in the overall World Cup standings — Kildow to third with 435 points and Mancuso to seventh with 279.
    "I'm just going for consistency," Mancuso said. "I've had a lot of ups and downs the past two seasons, so I'm not giving myself any expectations for the overall."
    Overall, Kildow is only one point behind Nicole Hosp of Austria, and six less than Goetschl.
    Mancuso said Wednesday she will not compete in Thursday's slalom. 

Kildow steps up
    "After yesterday's downhill, today's mission was pretty clear for me. I just wanted to ski well, and better than yesterday where I made some stupid mistakes," Kildow said. "I wasn't feeling really comfortable because I hadn't finished the training run [Monday]. But today it wasn't the same story, I knew exactly what I had to do and I just executed my plan."
    After last year's Val d'Isere win, she also won a cow, which she kept and is having raised at the U.S. women's European base in Kirchberg, Austria. Val d'Isere organizers, surprised by her decision a year ago to keep it, are awarding a big wheel of cheese to this year's winners — "but they've said it's from my cow," Kildow laughed.
    Kirsten Clark, who tied for 22nd a day earlier, was 13th in the 15-degree sunshine, the only other U.S. woman to crack the top 30.
    The race was a makeup for one originally scheduled in St. Moritz, Switzerland, that was canceled because of poor snow. Recent snows in Val d'Isere have boosted conditions and made for a very fast track, Kildow and Mancuso said. Tuesday, the women's run was a 2.5 km track; Wednesday, organizers had extended it to a 2.8 km course.
    Kildow used the same formula as her teammate the previous day, leading from the time she charged out of the gate. She led by 0.17 seconds at the first timing split, hit 122.3 kph and boosted her lead to .43, then .79, By midrace, she was more than a second ahead of the field (1.03) and bumped that to 1:35 at the next-to-last split, zipped through the final speed trap at 123.8 kph — more than 75 mph — and cruised to her second DH of the young season. At Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, she also won the second of two downhills.
    "I'm so happy with the performance I had today. This victory means more confidence and that if I have a plan and I stick to it, good things will happen. I'm just going to keep working hard and hopefully it will stay like this for the rest of the season," Kildow said.
    "I knew the way to correct yesterday's run and to fix it for today's leg. It wasn't anything complicated and above all it was a lack of confidence. My self-confidence was not as high as I had it in the past. Usually we had three training runs and plenty of time to get the right feeling, and there is obviously a huge difference when you can train only one day like it was the case on Monday.
    "I come out and fight every day. If I'm not fast, it's because I'm not confident or I don't feel comfortable. I know what to do," Kildow continued, "and I've been working hard my whole life to do well each day. So far, it's paying off.
    "I love going fast; that's why I do downhill. I just love it. As long as I'm on the podium, I feel good. I feel my speed is good and my energy is coming back. It's just like Lake Louise [she's won twice there, including a DH Dec. 2] again. It's awesome."

Mancuso can deal with second
    Mancuso skied 21st, as she had done Tuesday, and had to wait for Kildow, again running 30th and normally the final threat to overtake the leader. And this time she did it. Mancuso, still buoyant after a weekend in which both of them were sick in Austria and then she won in Val d'Isere's first DH, had no problems with the result.
    "It's always good when the last person to ski down is your teammate because I don't really have anything to worry about," she explained. "Of course, I want to win but being second in the second downhill is a great achievement.
    Reflecting on four podiums in two days for her and Kildow — and the overall success of the U.S. squad including three wins and two other podiums in five races by the men — she said, "We can keep on rolling. All it takes is a little momentum. It's exciting. I'm stoked for everyone."
    Speed head coach Alex Hoedlmoser smiled again and noted, "I said yesterday Julia had the devil on her back when she won and Lindsey would have it today … and, for sure, she did. They both skied great. I also was psyched with Kirsten's performance; she had some little wobbles in the middle —
there was a key turn coming into the Meadows and she was a little late, but she pulled it off and was charging."
    Snow conditions, he said, "were pretty man-made — really, really compact and pretty aggressive. It's not slick but it's aggressive — you had to be on top of your skis, not using a whole lot of edge — and even coming down after the race, the snow still was perfect."
    The unprecedented podium parade by U.S. skiers began last Friday when Bode Miller won a super G in Val Gardena, Italy; Saturday, Steve Nyman captured his first World Cup victory in a downhill in Val Gardena. Sunday, Miller was second in a giant slalom in Alta Badia, Italy, and Ted Ligety made it four straight days of a podium for the U.S. Ski Team by finishing second in a slalom, also in Alta Badia. And then Mancuso and Kildow took over, running the historic string to podiums by five skiers in six days. (When Miller won a super G in Hinterstoder, Austria, about an hour and a half after the women's race ended Wednesday, it made nine U.S. top threes in seven races — at least one in each race — in six days.)
    The women complete their pre-Christmas schedule Thursday with a slalom in Val d'Isere.

— Manuele Lang, USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's downhill, Val d'Isere, France, Dec. 20, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Kildow, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
3 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Goetschl, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Jacquemod, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
6 Meissnitzer, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7 Vanderbeek, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
8 Fischbacher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Gisin, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
10 Brydon, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Women's downhill, Val d'Isere, France, Dec. 20, 2006. … It is the 10th race of the women's 37-event World Cup schedule. … It is the fourth of nine downhills on the schedule. … It is the second of back-to-back downhills at Val d'Isere and the middle of a three-race set with a slalom remaining.
    It is the sixth career win for Lindsey Kildow and fifth in DH. … It is her second win and fifth podium of the season. … It is the 168th U.S. World Cup win. … And sixth of the season. … Kildow passes Christin Cooper and Kiki Cutter on the all-time U.S. win list into a tie for seventh with Cindy Nelson and Kristina Koznick. … It is her second win at Val d'Isere in two seasons.
    It is the fifth career podium for Julia Mancuso. … Her second in two days at Val d'Isere. … She also has two podiums at Cortina. … It is her third DH podium. … The last 1-2 U.S. result was at Are on March 16 with Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves in SG. … For women it was at Val d'Isere Dec. 17, 2005, with Kildow and Caroline Lalive.
    It is the 72nd career podium for Anja Paerson. … Her fifth in DH. … It is her second podium of the season, both coming in the second of back-to-back DHs. … It is her first podium at Val d'Isere since a second in GS Dec. 16, 2001.
    Kelly VanderBeek matches her fifth-best career placing in seventh place. … She has just one DH result better, sixth from Lake Louise Dec. 1. … It is the 17th career top 10 for Emily Brydon. … Her fourth of the season. … It is the best DH result at Val d'Isere ever for Kirsten Clark. … The previous best being 21st in a two-run DH in 1997 and again last season. … It is her best result of the season. … It is the 30th career scoring result for Britt Janyk. … It is one placing off her personal best for Val d'Isere.
    Renate Goetschl (fourth in race) takes over the overall lead of the World Cup, leading Nicole Hosp (16th in race) 441-436. … Kildow moves into third at 435. … Mancuso is seventh at 279. … Kildow leads the downhill standings 340-225 over Goetschl with Mancuso in third at 206. … Anja Paerson is fourth at 176. … Winning margin is 1.24 seconds. … First seven skiers are within two seconds of winning time.

Val d'Isere women's World Cup downhill results

Did not start 1st run:
BARTHET Anne-Sophie (FRA), RUBENS Shona (CAN)

Did not finish 1st run:
MAZZOTTI Lucia (ITA)

World Cup downhill standings (after 4 of 9 races)
1. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 340 points.
2. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 225.
3. Julia Mancuso, United States, 206.
4. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 176.
5. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 148.
6. Maria Riesch, Germany, 137.
7. Ingrid Jacquemod, France, 127.
8. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 125.
9. Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austria, 124.
10. Nadia Styger, Switzerland, 92.
(tie) Sylviane Berthod, Switzerland, 92.<

World Cup overall standings (after 10 races)
1. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 441 points.
2. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 436.
3. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 435.
4. Marlies Schild, Austria, 377.
5. Kathrin Zettel, Sweden, 310.
(tie) Anja Paerson, Sweden, 310.
7. Julia Mancuso, United States, 279.
8. Ingrid Jacquemod, France, 210.
9. Michaela Kirchgasser, Austria, 208.
10. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 185.