U.S. Nationals: Vonn rolls to the slalom crown

SUGARLOAF, Maine — Lindsey Vonn is the 2008 U.S. National slalom champion, a feat, she says, was more unlikely than winning the 2008 World Cup downhill title.
    It's actually her second national slalom crown. She also won in 2004 when she shared the honor with the same men's winner, Jimmy Cochran. It is also her fourth national title having won the combined at Whiteface Mountain in 2003 and added the super G at Alyeska in 2004.
    The last time the title races were here, in 2006, she bailed early, having survived what she has said was her most painful injury during an Olympic training run crash.

SUGARLOAF, Maine — Lindsey Vonn is the 2008 U.S. National slalom champion, a feat, she says, was more unlikely than winning the 2008 World Cup downhill title.
    It's actually her second national slalom crown. She also won in 2004 when she shared the honor with the same men's winner, Jimmy Cochran. It is also her fourth national title having won the combined at Whiteface Mountain in 2003 and added the super G at Alyeska in 2004.
    The last time the title races were here, in 2006, she bailed early, having survived what she has said was her most painful injury during an Olympic training run crash.
    Hailey Duke finished second, one placing better than she posted in the 2007 championships and Jenny Lathrop notched her first title race podium in third.
    Julia Wong, in ninth place, was the top junior finisher.
    Monday Vonn flew from the World Cup finals in Bormio, Italy directly to New York where she made the rounds of television talk show appearances, recording seven sessions on Tuesday alone. She and her mother got in a little unexpected quality time when her flight north was grounded by the storm that caused so many schedule changes at the National Championships. The two drove instead, arriving at Sugarloaf Thursday. Friday, she said, she spent most of the day lying around her room watching television.
    Saturday she won the slalom title by nearly two full seconds.
    "I'm skiing well," she said, "even though I'm fried."
    That she was. Her form through two sneaky slalom sets was textbook, her upper body still and steady while her skis snaked through the gates. "Nothing special, just a steady run," she said, was her goal.
    Although she might have preferred to sit out these title races as some of the World Cup team historically has, she said she feels an obligation to younger skiers. "I like coming [to Nationals] because I think it's important to get the next generation fired up for racing."
    She did leave Sugarloaf during the national races in 2006, because, she said, "I just couldn't go on any longer."
    That season she was coming off a brutal season during which she made the Olympic highlight reels with a nasty crash in downhill training that sent her to the hospital. She "escaped" from the hospital to race in the Olympic downhill but was too sore to hold her tuck and finished eighth. This season, of course, she claimed the World Cup overall title, the first for an American woman since 1983, and added the downhill title as well becoming the only American other than Picabo Street to win it.
    "I wanted to be here, but my mind just wasn't in it," she said of her 2006 trip here. "I was so tired physically I was falling over at the bottom of the course, and that just isn't safe."
    Vonn said the second of the two slalom courses here was "pretty rutted." Duke said it was "like a rodeo. Not kind of, it was," and that, she added, "makes it more interesting."
    The Idaho skier said she was a rodeo fan. Certainly her ride this season has been pretty wild. Although she missed collecting her first World Cup points – by some small margins – she placed eighth overall on the Europa Cup, a placing that automatically brings her a level of respect few U.S. racers ever know.
    She also finished second in the Nor-Am slalom standings, a position she earned by winning the final two slaloms of the season March 8 and 9 in Ontario.
    Lathrop had the advantage of staying at her home in North Conway NH and getting some needed downtime before the championships began here. And, she said, she'll have some pretty good memories of her first national championship podium. "Yeah, Lindsey in the start right behind me, that's something, right off the World Cup championship. I was really racing for second place today."

Did not finish 1st run: GOVAN Danielle (USA), JAMES Emily (USA), WALES Brooke (USA), RALSTON Alice (NZE), LEGGETT Kristin (USA), SHAW Kara (USA), COOPER Kirsten (USA), STRACHOTA Maddie (USA), MCDONALD Amanda (USA), BRAGG Kate (USA), PACKARD Madeline (USA), HARTMAN Katie (USA), MCJAMES Megan (USA), GRANT Sterling (USA)

Did not finish 2nd run: NEWELL Allyson (USA), HAMMEL Emily (USA), ANTHONY Gabrielle (USA), BYERS Felicia (USA), NOVA Chelsea (USA), FUCIGNA Abigail (USA), HOSTETTER Mary Rachel (USA), ROSS Laurenne (USA), ROSS Lauren (USA), SMITH Leanne (USA)

Disqualified 1st run: SAMUELS Lauren (USA), CICCONE Caitlin (USA)

Disqualified 2nd run: LEONARD Molly (USA), HAMMOND Courtney (USA), HITCHCOCK Katie (USA)