Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Ski racing superstar Lindsey Vonn came back from the brink of disaster to win her 55^th career Audi FIS Alpine World Cup on Saturday, matching Swiss great Vreni Schneider for second in the all time wins list. Vonn, who was already .24 behind, went wide on a sweeping turn before the midway point of the course and losing valuable time. But she nailed the bottom of the Lake Louise downhill to take a .52 second margin over teammate Stacey Cook and extend her win streak on the Canadian Rockies course to six. It was Cook’s second career podium, matching the result of a day earlier.

“I was going into Fishnet today with a lot more speed than yesterday. I felt like I just hit a few bumps and caught my inside ski and almost went into the fence then somehow kept going. It was definitely interesting, but I didn’t give up. I haven’t won with that big of a mistake before,” asserted Vonn, of Vail, Colo.  “Over the last few years I’ve really worked on getting stronger and that helps recover from mistakes like that one. It’s not the way you want to ski, but it helps my confidence to know that I can recover from them.”

Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell holds the women’s World Cup win record with 62, a feat now within Vonn’s sights. Saturday’s victory was Vonn’s 13th in Lake Louise and sixth straight, placing her in fourth in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall standings behind Slovenian Tina Maze, who finished 10^th on Saturday, by 347 points to 210. Vonn and Cook are now first and second in the downhill standings.

The U.S. Ski Team – put six athletes into the top 20. Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., was ninth, followed by Glenwood Springs, Colo.’s Alice McKennis in 11^th. Bend, Ore.’s Laurenne Ross finished 18^th and Leanne Smith, of North Conway, N.H., was 20^th.

Cook had the added bonus of picking up her first two podiums with her family in attendance.

“I hope this is the tip of the iceberg for me. My coaches have told me that I’m like a fine wine – that I get better with age and it’s true,” said Cook, from Mammoth Lakes, Calif. “I just hope the body holds out with the age. This has a long time coming and I’m just now starting to believe that this is actually happening.

“There was a second there that I actually thought I might win this thing, but Lindsey is amazing,” Cook added. “When she made that mistake my heart actually stopped for a second. She’s amazing, she’s the only athlete that could stop on course and then still win.”

It was another disappointing day for Team Canada as Larisa Yurkiw, of Owen Sound, Ontario, endured more bad luck at the hands of Mother Nature, finishing 47^th after being slowed by fresh snow following a race delay.

After being forced to wait several hours for fog in Friday’s downhill, Yurkiw was hoping for redemption in the form of a top-30 result in Saturday’s race but was left facing mission impossible when it started snowing heavily during a course hold, leaving her to race on several centimeters of fresh snow.

“It’s been a unique couple of days,” said Yurkiw. “I just skied my plan and kept it simple and I think I executed fairly well. It was tough – the track was slow. There were a few challenges but I did my best.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Dec. 1, 2012
Women’s Downhill