Podium Profile: Tanja Poutiainen getting closer

Aspen Mountain’s World Cup course must have been made for Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen. She’s had four World Cup podiums here, and she added one more with a second place in Sunday’s slalom.
ASPEN, Colo. — Aspen Mountain’s World Cup course must have been made for Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen. She’s had four World Cup podiums here, and she added one more with a second place in Sunday’s slalom.
    “It’s amazing,” she said. “I have a lot of good races here. … I don’t know what is so good in it. It is nice. It has some roll overs, some turns left and right all the way down. It’s a nice one.”
    Maybe it helped that her coach set the second line, but she wouldn’t say either way.
    “It’s hard to say,” said Poutiainen about whether it gave her an advantage. “All the athletes are so good and can ski any kind of course.”  
    It was about time for her to post a podium this season. The 27-year-old veteran has barely missed the podium twice this season getting a fourth place once in GS at Sölden on Oct. 27 and again in slalom at Panorama on Nov. 25. She nabbed her 24th career World Cup win here, her 13th in slalom.    
    Many of the racers had a tough day, skiing out after hitting ruts in the soft snow on the second shadowed run. Austria’s Marlies Schild went down, and America’s Lindsey Vonn and Kaylin Richardson both had problems on the same rutted out gate, which dropped them way back in the standings. Poutiainen, however, didn’t think much of it.
    “For us who came last, it was a little rough, but whatever,” she said. “We had the advantage after the first run and we just had to keep it.
     “[The course] was really good,” she added. “I had no worries.”
    She even got to freeski in the soft snow when the storm hit two days ago, the same one that caused the super G to get canceled.
    “It was excellent,” she said. “We don’t get to go so much in the season. We have training and racing. We don’t have those possibilities.”
    But the racing possibilities are endless for this veteran, who is on the brink of winning her first World Cup of the season. Her goal is simple: win as many races as she can. “So far I don’t have any victory,” she said, “but I am getting closer.”