Austrians plus Gut clock fastest times in Lake Louise

By Published On: December 2nd, 2015Comments Off on Austrians plus Gut clock fastest times in Lake Louise

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – The World Cup speed ladies were caught a bit off guard on a less familiar track in Lake Louise this year during their opening downhill training run, as the course utilizes more terrain and larger features than in previous editions. The Austrian team demonstrated the strongest ability to make adjustments from inspection, and Cornelia Huetter led the way with the fastest training run time of 1:51.54. She was followed by her teammate Nicole Schmidhofer at 0.83 seconds back, while Swiss star Lara Gut was 0.97 seconds back.

Four Austrian skiers produced results among the five fastest times, all within one second of Huetter.

“I had a solid run but there are still sections where I can improve like going over these new rollers,” said Huetter. “It’s nice to be the fastest, but that’s only the first training and we cannot take it too seriously.”

Lindsey Vonn skied the fastest first split and was carrying speed into the middle of the course, but that’s where her intrepid approach may have gotten the better of her.

“There’s some new terrain on the course this year, and I came into a section with more speed than I anticipated and just kind of launched off of it and was going the wrong direction,” said Vonn. “That’s what training runs are for, to kind of get the feeling and see what speed you have, where you can push the line and where you can’t. I definitely learned a bit about the new terrain today, and hopefully tomorrow goes a little better.”

Despite finishing over four seconds behind the leader’s time, Vonn plans to push hard again in Thursday’s final training run.

“Tomorrow I’m definitely not going to back off because I need to be able to see what speed I’m going to have coming into those bumps and how to best carry my speed through them instead of launching off of them,” she noted. “I’m definitely going to have to try to push things tomorrow and see how it works out, see if I have to make any more adjustments for the races.”

Independent Canadian skier Larisa Yurkiw led the charge for North Americans, finishing 10th. The U.S. Ski Team’s Laurenne Ross and  Stacey Cook were 11th and 15th, respectively.

Gut, eager to take advantage of a short window of opportunity to train afternoon slalom, declined interviews following her downhill run. A course hold after Daniela Merighetti’s start in bib 11 concerned spectators as the rescue helicopter took off from the finish area. Merighetti was evacuated from the course using the long line, but her team reports that she suffered a laceration to her hip, likely from a ski edge, but is still hopeful to race. Her name was left on the board for Thursday’s training run. Last season the Italian broke her jaw and leg in two separate crashes during the winter.


Official Results

 1  8  56128 HUETTER Cornelia 1992 AUT  1:51.54
 2  7  55970 SCHMIDHOFER Nicole 1989 AUT  1:52.37  +0.83
 3  9  516138 GUT Lara 1991 SUI  1:52.51  +0.97
 4  22  56087 SIEBENHOFER Ramona 1991 AUT  1:52.52  +0.98
 5  5  56125 PUCHNER Mirjam 1992 AUT  1:52.53  +0.99
 6  27  296427 SCHNARF Johanna 1984 ITA  1:52.69  +1.15
 7  4  296431 STUFFER Verena 1984 ITA  1:52.97  +1.43
 8  12  355050 WEIRATHER Tina 1989 LIE  1:53.03  +1.49
 9  13  505886 KLING Kajsa 1988 SWE  1:53.14  +1.60
 10  6  106849 YURKIW Larisa 1988 CAN  1:53.32  +1.78
 11  10  538573 ROSS Laurenne 1988 USA  1:53.55  +2.01
 12  17  205218 REBENSBURG Viktoria 1989 GER  1:53.60  +2.06
 13  14  296472 FANCHINI Elena 1985 ITA  1:53.72  +2.18
 14  3  196968 BAILET Margot 1990 FRA  1:53.77  +2.23
 15  19  537582 COOK Stacey 1984 USA  1:53.87  +2.33
 16  18  515766 SUTER Fabienne 1985 SUI  1:53.89  +2.35
 17  36  516145 KUENG Mirena 1988 SUI  1:54.02  +2.48
 18  23  425880 SEJERSTED Lotte Smiseth 1991 NOR  1:54.03  +2.49
 19  15  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth 1981 AUT  1:54.19  +2.65
 20  33  516185 HAEHLEN Joana 1992 SUI  1:54.22  +2.68
 21  31  516319 SUTER Corinne 1994 SUI  1:54.59  +3.05
 22  24  297702 MARSAGLIA Francesca 1990 ITA  1:54.67  +3.13
 23  26  565360 STUHEC Ilka 1990 SLO  1:54.69  +3.15
 24  1  538685 MCKENNIS Alice 1989 USA  1:54.74  +3.20
 25  32  56088 TIPPLER Tamara 1991 AUT  1:54.75  +3.21
 26  21  296729 FANCHINI Nadia 1986 ITA  1:54.78  +3.24
 27  30  197295 PIOT Jennifer 1992 FRA  1:54.92  +3.38
 28  40  197615 BESSY Anouk 1995 FRA  1:55.06  +3.52
 29  2  56177 VENIER Stephanie 1993 AUT  1:55.11  +3.57
 30  25  375018 COLETTI Alexandra 1983 MON  1:55.17  +3.63
 31  42  155563 KRIZOVA Klara 1989 CZE  1:55.25  +3.71
 31  41  6535455 JOHNSON Breezy 1996 USA  1:55.25  +3.71
 33  34  56311 REISINGER Elisabeth 1996 AUT  1:55.40  +3.86
 34  16  537544 VONN Lindsey 1984 USA  1:55.61  +4.07
 35  20  245066 MIKLOS Edit 1988 HUN  1:55.70  +4.16
 36  51  297910 CURTONI Elena 1991 ITA  1:55.71  +4.17
 37  43  516219 NUFER Priska 1992 SUI  1:55.77  +4.23
 38  37  515997 FEIERABEND Denise 1989 SUI  1:56.01  +4.47
 39  47  107613 GRENIER Valerie 1996 CAN  1:56.41  +4.87
 40  50  206520 DORSCH Patrizia 1994 GER  1:56.59  +5.05
 41  53  506584 RAPAPORT Helena 1994 SWE  1:56.72  +5.18
 42  46  197641 GAUCHE Laura 1995 FRA  1:56.77  +5.23
 43  49  539363 GHENT Abby 1992 USA  1:56.86  +5.32
 44  48  539457 MARNO Anna 1992 USA  1:57.08  +5.54
 45  39  56200 NICOLUSSI Kerstin 1994 AUT  1:57.09  +5.55
 46  28  55913 MOSER Stefanie 1988 AUT  1:57.14  +5.60
 47  55  56224 MAIER Sabrina 1994 AUT  1:57.23  +5.69
 48  44  206548 MAGG Ann Katrin 1994 GER  1:57.79  +6.25
 49  38  197665 LARROUY Noemie 1995 FRA  1:58.02  +6.48
 50  35  197497 MIRADOLI Romane 1994 FRA  1:58.07  +6.53
 51  45  565333 BRODNIK Vanja 1989 SLO  1:58.34  +6.80
 52  52  196928 WORLEY Tessa 1989 FRA  1:58.67  +7.13
 53  56  465098 CAILL Ania Monica 1995 ROU  2:00.47  +8.93
 54  54  115115 BARAHONA Noelle 1990 CHI  2:02.45  +10.91
Did not finish 1st run
 29  539536 WILES Jacqueline 1992 USA
 11  296008 MERIGHETTI Daniela 1981 ITA

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.