The battle of the blondes: Vonn wins super G, Gut leads overall

O say can you see? By the dawn’s early light on a narrow, winding course, Austrian fans saw 58 racers start Sunday’s super G at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, and they looked on as an American won for the second day in a row.

Lindsey Vonn continued her speed dominance by winning her 73rd World Cup race and her 26th super G, which was set by U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Alberto Senigagliesi. The win, however, was not enough for her to overtake Switzerland’s Lara Gut for the overall points lead. Gut’s second-place performance keeps her in the overall lead by a mere 38 points for a few more days, at least.

“I’m not focused on the overall right now,” Vonn said. “It’s, you know, too early in the season. I’m just focused on winning. I want to win as many races as I can, and I think if I can do that it’ll put me in a good position for the overall title.”

In 2016, the strategy seems to be working with two consecutive wins under her belt.

“It’s a perfect start to the new year,” she continued. “I had a lot of confidence after Lake Louise and then in Val d’Isere I felt like I just kind of lost my confidence a little bit after going out in the downhill, so I went home. I had a good break and now, I’m energized again. I feel really good mentally and physically, and I think that showed in this weekend’s racing. Hopefully, I can just continue on in this direction, keep the momentum going and hopefully, keep winning.”

Gut plans to do the same despite finishing 0.70 seconds off the American. When asked about the fierce competition for the World Cup overall title that’s playing out between her and Vonn, she said, “I think we will have the answer in March. For the moment, I’m just trying to take it day by day. We saw yesterday with Lotte (Sejersted), everything can go so fast. You can crash and it’s over. So I really try to ski as I can everyday then we’ll see in March what’s going to happen.”

The battle of the blondes will continue throughout the season while others try to break onto the podium and earn World Cup points of their own. Cornelia Huetter took the third spot in the race – a repeat of her finish in the downhill on Saturday. This has been something of a breakout season for the Austrian, earning a personal record of five podium finishes so far and sandwiching her in second place in the super G standings between Vonn and Gut, who currently sit first and third.

Huetter’s teammate Sabrina Maier attacked from the back, starting bib 52 and charging to a 20th-place finish and a career best for the 21-year-old skier. Also of note was Viktoria Rebensburg’s run. While the German ultimately ended up in 11th place, she held the lead over Vonn to the third split before getting dangerously offline and scrubbing speed, which may very well have cost her the win.

In the shadow of Vonn’s celebrity, three more American women landed in the top 30. Laurenne Ross, Stacey Cook and Jacqueline Wiles earned results in 12th, 28th and 30th, respectively. The rest of the U.S. squad, including Breezy Johnson, Alice McKennis and Abby Ghent, finished back-to-back in 39th, 40th, and 41st.

The speed skiers have a week’s break before the Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, downhill training runs start on Jan. 21. The technical team will be back in action under the lights on Tuesday evening with the night slalom in Flachau, Austria, on Jan. 12 – the first run starting at 5:45 p.m. CET time.

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The Scoop
by Hank Mckee

1. Vonn, Head/Head/Head
2. Gut, Head/Head/Head
3. Huetter, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
4. Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Look
5. Goergl, Head/Head/Head
6. Marsaglia, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7. Schmidhofer, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8. Kling, Head/Head/Head
9. Schnarf, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
10. Brignone, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

• Women’s World Cup super G, Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Jan. 10, 2016. … It is the 17^th race of 41 on the women’s World Cup races schedule to be held … the second of eight scheduled super Gs. … It is a make-up race from one originally scheduled at St. Anton and moved due to insufficient snow. … It is the 30th World Cup race hosted by the site and the ninth super G. … Lara Gut won the last SG at Zauchensee in 2011.
• It is the 73^rd career World Cup victory for Lindsey Vonn, extending the all-time mark. … It is her 26^th super G win, extending that all-time mark as well. … It is her sixth win of the season, second in super G. … It is the 296^th U.S. World Cup win and the ninth of the season. … The winning margin is 0.70. … Top two finishers are within the same second. … Top 15 within two seconds.
• It is the 26^th career World Cup podium for Lara Gut … her ninth in super G. … It is her sixth podium of the season and first in SG.
• It is the sixth career World Cup podium for Cornelia Huetter, her fifth this season all without a win. … It is her second podium in SG, both this season.
• It is the 14^th time Laurenne Ross has finished 12^th or better in a World Cup race … the third time this season and the second time this season in two super Gs held. … It is the seventh score of the season for Stacey Cook. … It is the 11^th career World Cup score for Jacqueline Wiles, the fifth of the season and first of the season in super G.
• Lara Gut maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 738-700 over Vonn. … Frida Hansdotter (did not race) is third overall with 521pts. … Mikaela Shiffrin (did not race – injured Dec. 12) holds ninth with 296pts. … Vonn leads the super G standings 200-120 over Huetter. … Gut is third with 116pts.
• Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup standings 2242-1671 over Switzerland. … Italy is third with 1601. … The U.S. is fourth with 1428pts and Canada eighth with 525pts.

Official Results