Vonn sets victory mark in downhill

Lindsey Vonn broke Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record for most World Cup downhill victories Saturday at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, with her 37th win.

It also was Vonn’s 74th victory across all Alpine skiing disciplines, moving her closer to Ingemar

Stenmark’s all-time mark of 86. Vonn beat Larisa Yurkiw of Canada by 0.28 of a second with a nearly f lawless run amid windy conditions on the Olympia delle Tofane course, the same site where she eclipsed Moser-Proell’s overall women’s record of 62 victories a year ago.

Lara Gut of Switzerland finished third, 0.67 behind, and maintained a 10-point lead on Vonn in the overall standings. Austria’s Moser-Proell set her record from 1971 to ’80. Vonn won her first downhill in 2004 and earned her first podium finish at Cortina in 2004. Vonn also matched Austria’s Renate Goetschl with a record 10th win at Cortina.

Aksel Lund Svindal, the overall men’s World Cup leader, suffered a season-ending knee injury at Kitzbuehel, Austria, in the downhill, which was called off because of poor visibility after three serious crashes among 30 starters. Svindal ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and damaged a meniscus in his right knee, and later underwent surgery in a clinic in Innsbruck. He was expected to need up to nine months for recovery. Svindal was leading four-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 107 points in the overall standings.