Lindsey Vonn finds her flow on fresh snow in Zauchensee

By Published On: January 8th, 2016Comments Off on Lindsey Vonn finds her flow on fresh snow in Zauchensee

Central Europe – just like the East Coast of the United States – has had somewhat of a winter draught with minimal snowfall and canceled races to kick off the season. Just yesterday, the FIS announced that the upcoming women’s technical races in Ofterschwang, Germany, were canceled, and today they were officially relocated to Flachau (which will now host a total of three races this season) on Jan. 15 (slalom) and 17 (giant slalom). It’s also beginning to look more like winter with a four centimeter snowfall overnight in Zauchensee, Austria, which seemed to put more speed into Lindsey Vonn’s training run on Friday.

ALTENMARKT,AUSTRIA,08.JAN.16 -  ALPINE SKIING - FIS World Cup, Zauchensee, downhill training, ladies. Image shows Viktoria Rebensburg (GER). Keywords: Stoeckli. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Christian WalgramThe American took the top spot in the second training run on the shortened Kaelberloch track in preparation for Saturday’s unusual two-run downhill race. Vonn was just 0.28 seconds ahead of Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg and 0.59 seconds ahead of yesterday’s leader, Tina Weirather of Lichtenstein, who finished their runs in second and third, respectively.

For Vonn, it’s been 15 years since she last raced this style of downhill, but she is ready to take on the challenging course in back-to-back runs.

“It’s interesting that I am the only one who has already done a two-run downhill,” she said. “It was in 2002. I was 17 years old.”

Vonn also told reporters after the first training day that having two runs is a unique challenge for technicians.

“Two runs … it’s not easy for a ski technician, but Heinzy (Heinz Haemmerle) is definitely the best for me,” she explained. “I have always trusted him; the job he does is perfect. We will for sure prepare two different pairs of skis, and we’ll use the fastest ones for the second run.”

Weirather hopes to rely on her giant slalom experience to get ready for tomorrow’s race.

“I am really excited, I’ve done this before,” Weirather said. “I am kind of used to it because of GS, but the approach is kind of the same. You have to go as fast as you can from top to bottom and fight for every hundredth of a second. The top section is really important, there is a long slow turn right off the start where there can be a lot of time difference.”

Lara Gut of Switzerland, who won the most recent World Cup downhill in Val d’Isere, and Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria continue to be contenders for tomorrow’s race, coming in fourth and fifth less than a second off of Vonn.

Aside from Vonn, the United States is represented by eight additional athletes including veteran Stacey Cook, who was eighth in today’s training run, and rookie Breezy Johnson, who skied to 25th place.

Tomorrow is race day with first run starting at 9:30 a.m. CET and second run at 11:30 am CET.


Official Results

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time Diff.
 1  30  537544 VONN Lindsey 1984 USA  1:05.74
 2  11  205218 REBENSBURG Viktoria 1989 GER  1:06.02  +0.28
 3  18  355050 WEIRATHER Tina 1989 LIE  1:06.33  +0.59
 4  22  516138 GUT Lara 1991 SUI  1:06.54  +0.80
 5  15  55970 SCHMIDHOFER Nicole 1989 AUT  1:06.56  +0.82
 6  16  56128 HUETTER Cornelia 1992 AUT  1:06.68  +0.94
 7  24  296729 FANCHINI Nadia 1986 ITA  1:06.69  +0.95
 8  14  537582 COOK Stacey 1984 USA  1:06.76  +1.02
 9  12  505886 KLING Kajsa 1988 SWE  1:06.78  +1.04
 10  20  296472 FANCHINI Elena 1985 ITA  1:06.84  +1.10
 11  7  245066 MIKLOS Edit 1988 HUN  1:06.90  +1.16
 12  27  296431 STUFFER Verena 1984 ITA  1:06.93  +1.19
 12  8  56125 PUCHNER Mirjam 1992 AUT  1:06.93  +1.19
 14  33  516185 HAEHLEN Joana 1992 SUI  1:06.98  +1.24
 15  13  296008 MERIGHETTI Daniela 1981 ITA  1:06.99  +1.25
 16  28  296427 SCHNARF Johanna 1984 ITA  1:07.00  +1.26
 17  25  56087 SIEBENHOFER Ramona 1991 AUT  1:07.03  +1.29
 18  17  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth 1981 AUT  1:07.04  +1.30
 19  21  297702 MARSAGLIA Francesca 1990 ITA  1:07.11  +1.37
 20  1  425880 SEJERSTED Lotte Smiseth 1991 NOR  1:07.12  +1.38
 21  10  106849 YURKIW Larisa 1988 CAN  1:07.14  +1.40
 22  29  56177 VENIER Stephanie 1993 AUT  1:07.15  +1.41
 23  4  297910 CURTONI Elena 1991 ITA  1:07.16  +1.42
 24  5  196968 BAILET Margot 1990 FRA  1:07.31  +1.57
 25  43  6535455 JOHNSON Breezy 1996 USA  1:07.33  +1.59
 26  6  197295 PIOT Jennifer 1992 FRA  1:07.42  +1.68
 27  19  565360 STUHEC Ilka 1990 SLO  1:07.48  +1.74
 28  26  516319 SUTER Corinne 1994 SUI  1:07.54  +1.80
 29  23  539536 WILES Jacqueline 1992 USA  1:07.63  +1.89
 29  3  425929 MOWINCKEL Ragnhild 1992 NOR  1:07.63  +1.89
 31  41  299276 BASSINO Marta 1996 ITA  1:07.80  +2.06
 32  37  55913 MOSER Stefanie 1988 AUT  1:07.81  +2.07
 33  2  56088 TIPPLER Tamara 1991 AUT  1:07.84  +2.10
 34  35  375018 COLETTI Alexandra 1983 MON  1:07.93  +2.19
 35  42  197615 BESSY Anouk 1995 FRA  1:07.96  +2.22
 35  39  516145 KUENG Mirena 1988 SUI  1:07.96  +2.22
 37  59  56224 MAIER Sabrina 1994 AUT  1:07.98  +2.24
 38  36  55759 KIRCHGASSER Michaela 1985 AUT  1:08.00  +2.26
 39  48  206548 MAGG Ann Katrin 1994 GER  1:08.11  +2.37
 40  38  197497 MIRADOLI Romane 1994 FRA  1:08.14  +2.40
 41  44  155563 KRIZOVA Klara 1989 CZE  1:08.21  +2.47
 42  32  298323 GOGGIA Sofia 1992 ITA  1:08.25  +2.51
 42  31  538685 MCKENNIS Alice 1989 USA  1:08.25  +2.51
 44  54  206520 DORSCH Patrizia 1994 GER  1:08.42  +2.68
 45  49  565333 BRODNIK Vanja 1989 SLO  1:08.49  +2.75
 46  60  196928 WORLEY Tessa 1989 FRA  1:08.62  +2.88
 47  50  56336 DENGSCHERZ Dajana 1996 AUT  1:08.65  +2.91
 47  46  485631 YAKOVISHINA Elena 1992 RUS  1:08.65  +2.91
 49  34  56311 REISINGER Elisabeth 1996 AUT  1:08.67  +2.93
 50  65  298694 PICHLER Karoline 1994 ITA  1:08.70  +2.96
 51  52  206668 WEIDLE Kira 1996 GER  1:08.82  +3.08
 52  58  206444 HOESL Simona 1992 GER  1:08.86  +3.12
 53  51  197641 GAUCHE Laura 1995 FRA  1:08.95  +3.21
 54  57  539363 GHENT Abby 1992 USA  1:09.00  +3.26
 55  40  197665 LARROUY Noemie 1995 FRA  1:09.04  +3.30
 56  63  197124 FRASSE SOMBET Coralie 1991 FRA  1:09.26  +3.52
 57  53  297601 BRIGNONE Federica 1990 ITA  1:09.29  +3.55
 58  45  516219 NUFER Priska 1992 SUI  1:09.34  +3.60
 59  55  539457 MARNO Anna 1992 USA  1:09.39  +3.65
 60  62  6535600 MERRYWEATHER Alice 1996 USA  1:09.50  +3.76
 61  56  56328 ORTLIEB Nina 1996 AUT  1:09.51  +3.77
 62  47  107613 GRENIER Valerie 1996 CAN  1:09.83  +4.09
 63  61  516359 SCALVEDI Beatrice 1995 SUI  1:10.15  +4.41
 64  67  516394 SUTER Jasmina 1995 SUI  1:10.63  +4.89
 65  64  115115 BARAHONA Noelle 1990 CHI  1:11.25  +5.51
 66  68  465098 CAILL Ania Monica 1995 ROU  1:11.32  +5.58
 67  9  538573 ROSS Laurenne 1988 USA  1:15.45  +9.71
Did not start 1st run
 66  485749 PROKOPYEVA Aleksandra 1994 RUS

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About the Author: Gabbi Hall

A California native, Gabbi moved to Vermont to ski on the NCAA circuit for St. Michael’s College, where she served as team captain and studied journalism. Before joining Ski Racing, she worked as a broadcast TV producer and social media manager in higher education. She can be reached via email at gabbi@skiracing.com