World Cup: Canadian Yurkiw second as American Vonn matches downhill record with her 36th win
ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, AUSTRIA— Canadian Larisa Yurkiw and the rest of the field had to settle for playing second-best to American Lindsey Vonn on Saturday.
Yurkiw finished second to Vonn in a women’s World Cup downhill event for her third career podium finish. It came at the resort where the native of Owen Sound, Ont., made her World Cup debut nine years ago, finishing 58th in a downhill.
But Vonn stole the show, registering her 36th career downhill victory to match the record set by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell in 1980.
Yurkiw called racing against Vonn “a constant challenge. She is a good competitor though she is not unbeatable. But today she was.”
Moser-Proell, 62, attended Saturday’s race and was among the first to congratulate Vonn, who leaned backward and spread both arms in celebration right after finishing a full second ahead of the competition in an unusual two-run format downhill.
“She is so kind,” said Vonn, who broke Moser-Proell’s overall record of 62 victories a year ago in Italy. “I am so glad she’s here today as she couldn’t be in Cortina last year. It means a lot to me. She is a true legend of our sport.”
Vonn, who now has 72 World Cup wins across all Alpine disciplines, already held the record for most super-G victories with 25. That dis- cipline was introduced in the 1980s after Moser-Proell had retired.
The Austrian holds one more record that will take even Vonn some time to beat — Moser-Proell won six overall titles compared to Vonn’s four.
“I am very happy,” said Vonn, competing in her first race of 2016 after taking a break with friends and family in the United States last week.
“I just had a bad feeling after (not finishing last month’s downhill in) Val d’Isere, I lost the momentum, I was tired, my knees hurt, and I was sick in the end,” she said. “I went home and I felt much better. So far I like the new year.”
Vonn, who held a comfortable .91 second lead over Yurkiw after the first run, finished with a combined time of two minutes, 11.17 seconds, one second ahead of Yurkiw.
Cornelia Huetter of Austria was third, 1.66 seconds behind.
Despite building big leads over her competitors, Vonn said she “wasn’t trying to do anything special. I just tried to ski a solid run.”
Overall leader Lara Gut of Switzerland failed to finish the opening run. Gut remains 58 points clear of Vonn going into Sunday’s super-G.