Vonn poised to win again in Cortina d’Ampezzo downhill

After weeks of mixed weather conditions on the World Cup circuit, the sun finally broke through, making way for glistening blue skies in Italy — just in time for two downhill training runs in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Vonn, who skied the fastest first training run over Lara Gut by 0.60 seconds, and the Olympia delle Tofane course have a strong relationship. The only place Vonn has won more races is in Lake Louise, Canada, plus she claimed her career first World Cup podium in these Italian Alps.

“And last year it was amazing to break the record here,” Vonn said. “I just have really good memories. I like the track. It’s like Lake Louise. It’s one of my favorites on the whole tour, so I am happy to be back here.”

Earlier this month in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Vonn tied Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell for the all-time downhill wins record. Tomorrow, she is poised to break the record if she can claim her 37th World Cup downhill win – the most by any woman in a specific World Cup discipline.

“Snow and everything here is perfect. It’s in incredible shape, and I had a good training run,” Vonn said following her first training run on the slope. “It’s just training, so tomorrow, I’m just going out there and having fun and making some adjustments. It’s perfect Cortina as usual and I’m excited to be back here.”

Having fun worked for Vonn, when she beat her first day’s time by 1.50 seconds in the second training run, coming in with a total time of 1:37.48. Some of her competitors were also faster on day two, with Italy’s Verena Stuffer just 0.38 seconds back and Tina Weirather out by 0.40 seconds. The Italian has never podiumed in a World Cup race, but with two strong finishes in the training runs, she could be on track to make Cortina a career first.

The increase in speed could be due to a change in the structure of the course. Yesterday, Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria crashed off a jump on course and suffered a torn ACL and meniscus, ending her season. As a result, the the Duca d’Aosta jump was deemed too dangerous and was cut down to prevent the racers from hitting a flat landing.

The jump still seemed to be an issue for Vonn, but for other reasons.

“I almost crashed after the jump at the Duca d’Aosta hut,” she claimed after the second training run. “Something entered in my eye, perhaps the makeup, and I wasn’t able to see for a moment. I landed blindly.”

For those sorting out Fantasy Ski Racer picks, do not count out Vonn’s biggest rival and the current overall points leader, Gut. The Swiss skier ended up in 13th place in the second training run. But she admitted she was testing new skis on Friday, and it was not a wise choice on her part.

Also in the hunt for the podium are Cornelia Huetter of Austria and Fabienne Suter of Switzerland. The Austrian, who finished sixth and fourth in the training runs, has been on the World Cup downhill podium three times this season. Former downhill points leader Suter was out with a torn muscle but returns to the circuit still third in the standings.

As for the Americans, they are crowding the top 15. Veterans Stacey Cook, Jacqueline Wiles, Laurenne Ross and Alice McKennis all skied onto the front page of results in the second training run – a huge improvement over day one where McKennis was the only one to finish in the top 15 and ski a clean course. Wiles was in second on the results sheet but missed multiple gates on her way to the finish.

World Cup young gun Breezy Johnson recently had success in European Cup downhill races and is hoping to translate that into scoring her first World Cup points.

There will be no more need for speculation after tomorrow. So, make your picks and brace yourself. The downhill race starts at 10:15 a.m. CET.

Official Results

Training Run 1

Training Run #2