Vonn wins again at WC downhill
Innerhofer captures men’s downhill
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta, Dec 1, (AP): Lindsey Vonn won the season-opening downhill Friday for her 12th career World Cup victory at Lake Louise, renewing her desire to race against the men at the Canadian resort.
“When you say you want to race the men, you can’t really not win the women’s races,” said the four-time overall World Cup champion, whose bid to race in the men’s event last week was denied by FIS.
“I knew that and I definitely was trying to prove a point, I think mostly to myself, but to everyone else who doesn’t think I should race with the men. Hopefully it works out. Maybe it won’t, but I think my skiing will speak for itself.”
Vonn finished in 1 minute, 52.61 seconds Christof Innerhofer, of Italy, goes airborne during the men’s World Cup downhill ski race, Nov 30, in the Beaver Creek, Colo.
Innerhofer placed first. (AP) winning the practice run the day before the race.
But Svindal made two big mistakes on his run, which cost him valuable time.
“I knew that Innerhofer had been crazy fast,” said Svindal, who started nine spots after Innerhofer. “So you know it’s going to take risks to catch him and also a clean run. It wasn’t very clean.”
On this course nearly five years ago, Svindal was involved in a horrific crash in a training run. The 29-year-old broke his nose and cheekbone, when he lost control over a jump and landed on his back. He slid into the fencing but not before passing over one of his razor-sharp skis, which gave him a sixinch laceration on his left buttock, a cut that had doctors so concerned they went into his stomach to make sure everything internally was still intact. Does that day still stick with him? “It doesn’t,” Svindal said. “It’s another race, actually. That’s what it needs to be in order to be fast.”
Defending champion Bode Miller didn’t compete as he recovers from offseason surgery on his left knee. Instead, the American watched the race from a chair near the finish line.
Miller said there’s still no timetable for a return to the slopes and he won’t hurry to get back, either. He’s taking a cautious approaching.
“It still hurts now. So, we’re on hold,” Miller told The Associated Press. “It’s one of those things where I don’t want to rush it. When we’re ready, we’re ready. Then, we’ll go.”
Even with Miller not climbing into the starting gate for the race, the American still received plenty of attention. All the questions about his counterpart seemed funny to Svindal.
“Bode would for sure have been one of the best guys here today. But the fact is he’s not here,” Svindal said. “I don’t worry about him, to be honest.”