Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – Olympic champions Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn raced their way to second and third in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup downhill in the Olympic village of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy on Saturday. Germany’s Maria Riesch won the noteworthy downhill to increase her lead in the overall World Cup chase over Vonn. It marked the seventh time Mancuso and 10th time Vonn have been on the podium in Cortina.nSaturday was a perfect day for ski racing in Cortina. “It was a great day for racing, the weather was superb and the snow was perfect but it wasn’t an easy day for us,” said Canadian Alpine Ski Team women’s head coach Hugues Anzermoz, referring to his team’s three entrants who finished 24th, 37th and 47th.
Alex Hoedlmoser, Women’s Head Coach for the U.S. Ski Team, had much more to be excited about. “Julia’s (Mancuso) run was awesome. I’m really psyched. It was a very good effort, solid run top to bottom and very good skiing. This should definitely give her some confidence it’s been a long time since she’s been on the podium in a downhill except the Olympics. It’s a really good confidence booster.”
Mancuso, of Olympic Valley, Calif., credited the race day conditions in part for her second place finish.
“I really like Cortina, so it’s always nice to get on the podium. I like it because it’s fast the whole way down, especially this year it was really good snow conditions and race day was sunny,” she said. “It allowed for pretty good speed the whole way down and there’s not one spot where you slow down at all. It’s basically a charge fest.
“This year’s been really good starting in Lake Louise,” Mancuso added. “I’ve been skiing really well. I felt like my skiing was a mistake away from the podium all the time so hopefully when I stop making those mistakes I’ll be good.”
Vail, Colo.’s Vonn joined Mancuso on the podium despite a nearly costly mistake near the bottom of her run.
“I thought I had a pretty good run going on top and then close to the bottom I caught an edge. I was heading straight for the fence and somehow managed to recover it and keep skiing until to the finish,” Vonn said. “I was pretty shocked, it was just a really close call. I’m really lucky I didn’t hurt myself. My knee’s hurting pretty badly right now, but nothing major happened so I’m really happy about that. I’m just happy to make it to the finish. Today could have been a lot worse than it was. I’m really happy with third.
“It’s hard because you have to react so quickly,” she explained. “I just could see the fence coming really fast and all I was trying to do was to stay in the course but also not crash. I was trying just to fight to stay in the course, but you have to be quick on your feet and try to recover.”
Canada’s Britt Janyk, from Whistler, British Columbia, remained positive despite her 24th-place finish.
“I definitely was hoping for a better result,” said Janyk. “I made a couple of mistakes in the key parts of the course and that cost me a lot of time. I wasn’t as fast as I would have hoped, but there are still some good things to take from my race today and that is what I will try to focus on. I just need to keep my head up and keep doing my best. Just because I didn’t have good results in the last two days, it doesn’t mean I can’t have a great result tomorrow. I just need to build on the good things and focus on the positive.”
Goergia Simmerling, from West Vancouver, British Columbia, was the second fastest Canadian on the Olympia della Tofane course, crossing the finish line in 37th. The last Canadian to finish Saturday was Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, athlete Victoria Stevens, who was 46th in her first race on the Cortina d’Ampezzo downhill course.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – Jan. 22, 2011
Downhill
1. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:39.30
2. Julia Mancuso, Squaw Valley, CA, 1:40.21
3. Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:40.30