Catch Vonn on TV; A look back at Finals

It was a magical 2008-09 season for Lindsey Vonn, characterized by breaking one historical record after another.

Vonn just arrived back on U.S. soil but won’t get much time to decompress as she is off on a media tour for the next few days before joining the rest of the U.S. Team (minus Bode Miller) in Alyeska, Alaska, March 24-31 for the U.S. Alpine Championships.

Don’t miss her live on NBC’s Today Show this Thursday morning, then on the Early Show on CBS Friday morning. Also keep an eye out for her on CNN, ESPN and FOX Business News in the near future.

As far as how things wrapped up at the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden, last week, here’s how it all went down:It was a magical 2008-09 season for Lindsey Vonn, characterized by breaking one historical record after another.

Vonn just arrived back on U.S. soil but won’t get much time to decompress as she is off on a media tour for the next few days before joining the rest of the U.S. Team (minus Bode Miller) in Alyeska, Alaska, March 24-31 for the U.S. Alpine Championships.

Don’t miss her live on NBC’s Today Show this Thursday morning, then on the Early Show on CBS Friday morning. Also keep an eye out for her on CNN, ESPN and FOX Business News in the near future.

As far as how things wrapped up at the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden, last week, here’s how it all went down:

 As only the top 25 in each discipline qualify to compete in the World Cup Finals, only Vonn and Julia Mancuso represented the U.S. in the last races of the season, Vonn in all four events, Mancuso in downhill and GS.

Both Mancuso – who turned 25 on the first day of downhill training in Are – and Vonn said they enjoyed the action-packed speed course, which was used for the men’s races in the 2007 world championships and was characterized by three large jumps and several sweeping, high-speed turns.
Vonn was aiming to finally put that untouchable gap between herself and Riesch – her closest contender in the overall standings – in the downhill final.
She did more than that.

Not only did Vonn clinch the overall title – becoming the only American woman to ever take it two years straight – she also blasted away the field, landing the 21st victory of her World Cup career. Her only other DH victory this year was the season’s first in Lake Louise, meaning that she started AND finished on top.

Riesch, whose only other downhill podium this season was a third place in Lake Louise, was the only racer to finish within a second of Vonn, .40 seconds back.
Austrian veteran Renate Goetschl rounded out the podium – her first and last top-three finish of the season – 1.26 seconds behind Vonn.

After the race, Vonn collected the downhill globe – also the second of her career, with 502 points – as Andrea Fischbacher finished second with 326 points and Riesch third with 292 points.
“It feels great,” Vonn said after the race. “I started out really strong in downhill, but since the beginning, I hadn’t won a downhill until today. Winning a second downhill title is huge. I’m really happy. I couldn’t ask for more.”

But this is Lindsey Vonn we’re talking about … and there’s always more.

Next up was the final super-G race and Vonn had her eye on that title, too. She was sitting within striking distance of then-leader of the SG standings, Fabienne Suter, as she stepped into the start gate wearing bib No. 22.

Nadia Fanchini, who before the race was third in the SG standings and also within striking distance, had put down the fastest run, seven places ahead of Suter, which would have been enough for the SG title. Except that Vonn knew what she had to do. Winning the title would have to mean winning the race.

Mission accomplished.

Though she claimed to have made a mistake at the bottom of the course and come close to crashing, Vonn shot down like a comet and crossed the finish line a fragment of a second ahead of Fanchini – .08 to be exact – for yet another victory and yet another globe. She crossed the finish line, glanced up at her time and collapsed in a fit of laughter.

“I knew in the start that she’d had a really good run and it would take an even better run to beat her,” Vonn said of Fanchini. “I think it was actually a little bit of an advantage to start later, even though the course got slower. I knew exactly what the other girls had done. I knew exactly what kind of run it would take to win the race. I fought the whole way. It was an incredible feeling to come down and know you’d just won the super-G title.”

She is the first American woman ever to win a super-G title. Oh, and it was her fifth straight SG victory, including her World Championship gold in Val d’Isere.

“It’s a huge day for me, I’m so, so happy,” Vonn said. “Going into the season, I started off not so strong in super-G. I finally picked up a rhythm and stuck with it. To have five wins back-to-back in super-G was something I never thought was possible.”

Riesch, who, despite landing the 2008 super-G title, hadn’t finished better than fifth this season in SG, rounded out the podium in Are, just .26 seconds off of Vonn’s winning pace.

Vonn added the SG globe to her hardware collection with a total of 461 points, followed by Fanchini with 416 and Suter – who ended up eighth in the race – with 408.

By the time the final slalom race rolled around the following day, Vonn said the majority of her energy was already spent.

Fifth after the first run, Vonn was charging in the second, but bobbled precariously halfway down the course, dropping precious time. Back at full-throttle near the finish, she went down on her hip but popped back onto her skis. Still, her speed was shot and she finished 18th.

The ultimate glory of the day was savored by – guess who? Sandrine Aubert. Proving that her Ofterschwang victory was no fluke, Aubert won the second World Cup race of her career six days after the first, followed by another newcomer, Germany’s Fanny Chmelar. Chmelar had just two World Cup top-10s under her belt before taking second in Are, her two run-combined time just .06 seconds behind Aubert. Sarka Zahrobska, The Czech Republic’s alpine star, took the last step of the podium, .23 seconds back.

Maria Riesch, who finished fifth, officially collected the 2009 slalom globe with a total of 670 points. Zahrobska usurped Vonn for second in the standings with 459 points as Vonn took third with 440.
And then came the giant slalom, the last World Cup race of the season.

With a couple of tight gates stacked right after a fall-away about halfway down the course, a few top racers were eliminated in the first run, including Anja Paerson, Lara Gut and yes, Lindsey Vonn.
One racer, however, claimed this race as hers right out of the start. That would be Slovenia’s Tina Maze.

Racing independently all season, the world champion GS silver medalist scorched the field in the final race. Leading after the first run, Maze cleaned house again in the second, with her closest contender, Tanja Poutiainen, 1.12 seconds behind her. Italian Manuela Moelgg was 1.39 seconds back for third. Mancuso wrapped up her Cup season placing 17th.

The result hoisted Poutiainen ahead of Kathrin Zettel (who was eighth in the race) to claim the GS title. She finished the season with 508 points to Zettel’s 501, while Maze also stepped into the picture, ending the season third in the standings with 338 points.

“I finally finished one season with great results,” Maze said. “It was just a great day.”
Vonn, who, despite her less-than-desired GS results, finished the season eighth in the GS standings. She officially collected her globe for the overall title, finishing the season with 1788 total points, followed by Riesch with 1424 and Paerson with 1059. With five globes over the last two seasons in tow, plus two world championship gold medals and other various hardware, Vonn might have paid some extra luggage fees for her trip back to the states.

“It was so much more than I ever thought possible,” She said. “I don’t know how I could get much better than this season. Now I’m looking at next year, at how hard I’ll have to work to defend all of these titles and hopefully I can continue to make progress in all of the disciplines,” Vonn said. “I’m going to work really hard this summer to be strong for the Olympics. I’ve dreamed about winning an Olympic medal since I was a little kid.”