Worlds: Women's DH training canceled; Vonn ready to win

Val d’Isere, France – The final day of women’s world championship downhill training was canceled on Saturday in order to preserve the Rhone-Alpes course for Sunday’s race.

Use of the course in the slalom portion of Friday’s super-combined race rendered parts of it soft when overnight temperatures prevented it from freezing.

“The snow was just way too soft this morning in that hard right boot turn where they had the slalom start yesterday and they did a ton of work all the way to the finish to smooth out the bumps, but it didn’t get cold enough to harden the surface,” said women’s U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Jim Tracy. “It was a good decision. Running another training run today would just beat it up some more and at this point we’ve had two training runs and the super-combined, so the girls know what they need to do. It’s better that they get some rest and that we have a solid track to race on tomorrow.”Val d’Isere, France – The final day of women’s world championship downhill training was canceled on Saturday in order to preserve the Rhone-Alpes course for Sunday’s race.

Use of the course in the slalom portion of Friday’s super-combined race rendered parts of it soft when overnight temperatures prevented it from freezing.

“The snow was just way too soft this morning in that hard right boot turn where they had the slalom start yesterday and they did a ton of work all the way to the finish to smooth out the bumps, but it didn’t get cold enough to harden the surface,” said women’s U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Jim Tracy. “It was a good decision. Running another training run today would just beat it up some more and at this point we’ve had two training runs and the super-combined, so the girls know what they need to do. It’s better that they get some rest and that we have a solid track to race on tomorrow.”

The women’s course has been the source of some disgruntled comments this week, as several women have complained that it is too turny and difficult for downhill racing. A good number of girls have crashed on it over the last few days, the worst case being up-and-coming Swedish racer Jessica Lindell-Vikarby, whose downhill training crash on Wednesday left her with a torn knee ligament and sidelined for the remainder of the season. Top racer Maria Riesch also had a bad training crash Wednesday, but recovered enough to barely miss the podium in Friday’s super-combined.

One racer who has reach a certain understanding with Piste Rhone-Alpes is Lindsey Vonn, who is absolutely twitching to win Sunday’s downhill. Vonn, who won gold in Tuesday’s world championship super G race, was disappointed after her surprise disqualification in Friday’s combined race that initially looked like a silver medal. She quickly switched gears from frustration to vengeance, however, concentrating her energy on Sunday’s race.

“I did well in the super G and I’m hoping to do well in more events here,” Vonn said after the race Friday. “I’m just going to look forward to the future. I’ve been feeling so great lately. The downhill now is my big motivation. I’m going to work hard and do everything I can to be on the podium in that race.”

Watch the women’s downhill race live at 1 p.m. local time and 7 a.m. EST on Universal Sports.