Trifecta in Lake Louise for Lindsey Vonn

By Published On: December 6th, 2015Comments Off on Trifecta in Lake Louise for Lindsey Vonn

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – The third World Cup win of the weekend for Lindsey Vonn didn’t matter quite as much to the speed queen as rounding off her career victory tally to a solid 70.

“My stepmom wrote me yesterday saying, ‘Sixty-nine is great, but I like round numbers so could you please just make it to 70?’ Last year I had 60 here, so it’s kind of nice,” said Vonn. “Seventy is a pretty big number.”

Vonn hushed any doubters who wondered if she could put an end to Swiss skier Lara Gut’s super G streak at Lake Louise, which had spanned the past two seasons, but there were more than a few bets on the line before she even pushed out of the starting gate.

“It was a big deal. I feel like there were some people that doubted whether I could win today, and especially because Lara had won the last couple races here in super G. Also my technician made some bets with people, so I felt a little bit like I had to come through. It was my physio Lindsay’s last day with me traveling on the road, so I kind of wanted to end with a bang,” said Vonn.

With her smoothest of three runs all weekend, Vonn unseated race leader and practical unknown Tamara Tippler of Austria by 1.32 seconds. Starting third, Tippler had capitalized on an early run down a pretty clean track and held a somewhat miraculous lead over the field, considering that her previous best super G finish was 21st in the 2014 Val d’Isere race and her career best had come yesterday with 16th in the downhill. Only Vonn was able to overtake the 39th-ranked super G skier on the day.

“I knew my run wasn’t that bad,” explained Tippler. “It was a really fast super G today, and I think that is a little bit for me. It’s so amazing – I have no words to describe it.”

For all the spectacle of Vonn’s trifecta, Tippler’s teammate Conny Huetter also leaves Lake Louise with three podium results herself after finishing third in the super G. Before coming to Canada this year, Huetter had only stood on a World Cup podium once in her career.

“Today was not easy, I was a little bit tired in my mind,” Huetter said. “I had to push hard, and it is a good result. I am super happy about it. The first part of the course wasn’t easy. I struggled a little bit to find some speed, but the lower part was good.”

Gut was looking for her third consecutive super G victory at the venue, but her run – 1.77 seconds off Vonn’s winning pace – proved only fast enough for seventh place. She secured three top-10 results over the weekend but not a single top-five finish, and Vonn leapfrogged over both her and Shiffrin to take the lead in the overall.

In the finish area, Gut shook her head and said through a chuckle, “Europe. I have to go back to Europe,” indicating that she is looking forward to stronger results on more familiar snow surfaces.

Although Shiffrin yielded her overall lead to Vonn, she emerged from the day with a solid performance in the debut World Cup speed race of her career. From bib 32, she made technical turns down the top of the course and crossed the finish line in an incredibly respectable 15th place.

“Mission accomplished. In the back of my head I was thinking, I’ll get points, but maybe a top 15. So by holding in 15th, that’s a really good day,” said Shiffrin. “There were some spots that I was probably a little bit too wide and here and there maybe turning almost too much. But down the pitch, onto the flats, I felt like I carried some good speed. What I hear is that I was pretty good on the flats, and that’s probably a spot where everyone expected me to be slow. So I’m starting ahead of where I actually thought I would. I felt solid on the skis and it was really fun to be honest.”

Shiffrin will look to clean up some elements before taking on the combined in Val d’Isere, France, later this month, and she caught a bit of the speed bug after her first shot at the Lake Louise course.

“When it came down to it, I was totally comfortable (in the air). And (the jumps) weren’t very big, actually, it was like 20 meters, 25 maybe. I felt super comfortable, and both of them were left-footed turns into the jumps, so just flattening out the skis the timing was fine,” she noted. “I’m probably still a little harsh on my landings, so I’ll work on that, but otherwise the course was amazing. First time on that hill ever, and I don’t ever want to leave. I can see why Lindsey loves this place.”

Norwegian Lotte Sejersted, who missed the majority of last season following a concussion sustained in a crash at Val d’Isere, was the only skier other than Tippler from outside the top-15 rankings to crack the top 10 on the day. She finished a career-best fifth.

Two other U.S. Ski Team athletes wound up in the points – Laurenne Ross was 12th, and Stacey Cook 17th. Canadian 19-year-old Valerie Grenier had the second best result of her career, finishing 16th.

The women now move on to race giant slalom and slalom in Are, Sweden, on Dec. 12-13.


The Scoop
By Hank McKee

  1. Vonn, Head/Head/Head
  2. Tippler, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
  3. Huetter, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
  4. Schnarf, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  5. Sejersted, Head/Head/Head
  6. Rebensburg, Stockli/Lange/Atomic
  7. Gut, Head/Head/Head
  8. Schmidhofer, Fischer/FischerFischer
  9. Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Dynastar
  10. Weirather, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  • Women’s World Cup super G, Lake Louise, Canada, Dec. 6, 2015. … It is the seventh of 41 races on the women’s 2015-16 World Cup schedule … the first of eight scheduled super Gs. … It is the 105th World Cup race hosted by Lake Louise … the 39th super G. … Lara Gut won the last two women’s super Gs at the site, and Lindsey Vonn the three straight before that.
  • It is the third consecutive win for Lindsey Vonn and the 70th of her career … her 25th in super G moving her past Hermann Maier to become the all-time winningest super G skier in World Cup history. … It is her 18th win at Lake Louise … her fourth in super G. … In 11 Lake Louise super Gs contested, Vonn has missed the podium three times. … Winning margin is 1.32 seconds. … Top nine skiers are within two seconds.
  • It is the first career World Cup podium for Tamara Tippler, her previous best a 16th in downhill the day before.
  • It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Cornelia Huetter and her third in three days.
  • It is the 12th top-12 World Cup finish of Laurenne Ross’ career and her best finish of the weekend. … It is the 11th best career result for Larisa Yurkiw and third best of the weekend. … It is the first career super G result for Mikaela Shiffrin. … It is the second career World Cup scoring finish for Valerie Grenier after a 13th in super G at St. Moritz last January. … It is the ninth best of 34 World Cup super G scoring results for Stacey Cook and her best of all time at Lake Louise.
  • Vonn leads the World Cup overall standings 300-296 over Shiffrin. … Lara Gut is third with 258pts.
  • Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup 852-797 over the U.S. …Italy is third with 745pts. … Canada is seventh with 252pts.

Official Results

 1  21  537544 VONN Lindsey 1984 USA  1:19.79  0.00
 2  3  56088 TIPPLER Tamara 1991 AUT  1:21.11  +1.32  17.87
 3  17  56128 HUETTER Cornelia 1992 AUT  1:21.14  +1.35  18.27
 4  24  296427 SCHNARF Johanna 1984 ITA  1:21.28  +1.49  20.17
 5  4  425880 SEJERSTED Lotte Smiseth 1991 NOR  1:21.45  +1.66  22.47
 6  16  205218 REBENSBURG Viktoria 1989 GER  1:21.55  +1.76  23.82
 7  20  516138 GUT Lara 1991 SUI  1:21.56  +1.77  23.96
 8  9  55970 SCHMIDHOFER Nicole 1989 AUT  1:21.63  +1.84  24.91
 9  18  296729 FANCHINI Nadia 1986 ITA  1:21.67  +1.88  25.45
 10  19  355050 WEIRATHER Tina 1989 LIE  1:21.88  +2.09  28.29
 11  13  297702 MARSAGLIA Francesca 1990 ITA  1:21.94  +2.15  29.10
 12  12  538573 ROSS Laurenne 1988 USA  1:21.96  +2.17  29.37
 13  5  197295 PIOT Jennifer 1992 FRA  1:22.00  +2.21  29.91
 14  7  106849 YURKIW Larisa 1988 CAN  1:22.02  +2.23  30.18
 15  32  6535237 SHIFFRIN Mikaela 1995 USA  1:22.08  +2.29  31.00
 16  1  107613 GRENIER Valerie 1996 CAN  1:22.14  +2.35  31.81
 17  23  537582 COOK Stacey 1984 USA  1:22.21  +2.42  32.76
 18  29  196968 BAILET Margot 1990 FRA  1:22.26  +2.47  33.43
 19  30  565360 STUHEC Ilka 1990 SLO  1:22.31  +2.52  34.11
 20  15  515766 SUTER Fabienne 1985 SUI  1:22.37  +2.58  34.92
 21  31  56125 PUCHNER Mirjam 1992 AUT  1:22.41  +2.62  35.46
 22  33  516319 SUTER Corinne 1994 SUI  1:22.43  +2.64  35.73
 23  36  56177 VENIER Stephanie 1993 AUT  1:22.46  +2.67  36.14
 24  28  196928 WORLEY Tessa 1989 FRA  1:22.47  +2.68  36.28
 25  10  296472 FANCHINI Elena 1985 ITA  1:22.61  +2.82  38.17
 26  8  297910 CURTONI Elena 1991 ITA  1:22.67  +2.88  38.98
 27  6  56087 SIEBENHOFER Ramona 1991 AUT  1:22.76  +2.97  40.20
 28  2  425929 MOWINCKEL Ragnhild 1992 NOR  1:22.90  +3.11  42.10
 29  50  206520 DORSCH Patrizia 1994 GER  1:23.05  +3.26  44.13
 30  22  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth 1981 AUT  1:23.17  +3.38  45.75
 31  40  515997 FEIERABEND Denise 1989 SUI  1:23.20  +3.41  46.16
 32  27  197497 MIRADOLI Romane 1994 FRA  1:23.32  +3.53  47.78
 33  25  516219 NUFER Priska 1992 SUI  1:23.33  +3.54  47.92
 34  34  516185 HAEHLEN Joana 1992 SUI  1:23.49  +3.70  50.08
 35  26  155563 KRIZOVA Klara 1989 CZE  1:23.73  +3.94  53.33
 36  49  197641 GAUCHE Laura 1995 FRA  1:23.76  +3.97  53.74
 37  39  197615 BESSY Anouk 1995 FRA  1:23.81  +4.02  54.41
 38  55  56224 MAIER Sabrina 1994 AUT  1:23.84  +4.05  54.82
 38  48  375018 COLETTI Alexandra 1983 MON  1:23.84  +4.05  54.82
 40  37  55913 MOSER Stefanie 1988 AUT  1:23.89  +4.10  55.50
 41  41  539536 WILES Jacqueline 1992 USA  1:23.90  +4.11  55.63
 42  35  539457 MARNO Anna 1992 USA  1:24.09  +4.30  58.20
 43  42  197665 LARROUY Noemie 1995 FRA  1:24.10  +4.31  58.34
 44  38  538685 MCKENNIS Alice 1989 USA  1:24.23  +4.44  60.10
 45  44  516145 KUENG Mirena 1988 SUI  1:24.36  +4.57  61.86
 46  51  245066 MIKLOS Edit 1988 HUN  1:24.47  +4.68  63.35
 47  47  565333 BRODNIK Vanja 1989 SLO  1:24.48  +4.69  63.48
 48  46  56200 NICOLUSSI Kerstin 1994 AUT  1:24.87  +5.08  68.76
 49  43  539363 GHENT Abby 1992 USA  1:24.89  +5.10  69.03
 50  52  506584 RAPAPORT Helena 1994 SWE  1:25.33  +5.54  74.99
 51  54  465098 CAILL Ania Monica 1995 ROU  1:26.31  +6.52  88.25
 52  45  206548 MAGG Ann Katrin 1994 GER  1:27.74  +7.95  107.61
Did not finish 1st run
 53  115115 BARAHONA Noelle 1990 CHI
 14  505886 KLING Kajsa 1988 SWE
 11  296431 STUFFER Verena 1984 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.