Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Lindsey Vonn took her 70^th World Cup victory, her 25^th in super G (a record for both men and women in the discipline)  and third career sweep of the races in Lake Louise on Sunday with a 1.32-second win over Austria’s Tamara Tippler.

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, of Vail, Colo., 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, 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 Tippler. 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 21^st in the 2014 Val d’Isere race and her career best had come yesterday with 16^th in the downhill. Only Vonn was able to overtake the 39^th-ranked super G skier on the day.

“I knew my run wasn’t that bad,” explained the young 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 good 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 Vonn’s teammate Mikaela Shiffrin (by a mere 4 points) 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, the Coloradoan made technical turns down the top of the course and crossed the finish line in a respectable 15^th 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 15^th, that’s a really good day,” said Shiffrin. “There were some spots that I was probably a little bit too wide and 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.”

Two other U.S. Ski Team athletes finished in the points – Laurenne Ross, of Bend, Ore. was 12^th, and Mammoth Mountain’s Stacey Cook 17^th. Jackie Wiles (Aurora, Ore.) was 41^st, Anna Marno (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) 42^nd, Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) 44^th and Abby Ghent (Edwards, Colo.) 49^th.

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

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Dec. 6, 2015
Women’s Super G