Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn left no doubt to her ownership of the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup downhill in Lake Louise. After her six-year downhill win string was snapped a year ago, Vonn came storming back Friday to win by a remarkable 1.95 seconds over late-starting Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein in the season’s first speed event, the first of two downhills to be held in Lake Louise this weekend.

“I had a good feeling today. It’s been amazing to have the support of my teammates, coaches and everyone on the World Cup. My sister came all the way from North Carolina to watch me and it’s definitely helping me focus on skiing,” said Vonn. “Everything just came together and I’m hoping to keep it going this weekend. I’m happy to be back racing downhill.

“There was a pretty big head wind coming onto the Fall Away turn, but I knew that Heinz (Hemmerle) my technician had done some magic with my skis to help me on the flats and it all came together,” Vonn explained. “I couldn’t believe it. My goal was just to ski aggressively through the wind and tough light conditions. I could feel the wind heavily when I was skiing, so to win by almost two seconds is just amazing.”

It was the largest margin of victory in Vonn’s career and moved her to fourth on the women’s World Cup all-time list with 43 wins behind Annemarie Moser Proell (62), Vreni Schneider (55) and Renate Goetschl (46). Vonn has now won nine races in Lake Louise with 16 podiums in only 27 starts at the Canadian resort.  Her victory came hours after Bode Miller captured the Audi Birds of Prey downhill win in Beaver Creek, Colo., and created the first time two Americans had won downhills on the same day since Dec. 2004 when Miller won in Beaver Creek and Vonn (then Kildow) captured the first win of her career in Lake Louise.

“With Bode winning in Beaver Creek, it was a big day for the U.S. Ski Team and I hope we can continue the trend through the weekend and into next week when the men’s and women’s teams are together in Beaver Creek,” added Vonn.

It was Vonn’s second victory of the young World Cup season after winning the opening giant slalom race in Soelden, Austria. She now moves into second in Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall eight points behind Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, who finished Friday’s race in fourth.

Friday was also a strong day for Glenwood Springs, Colo.’s Alice McKennis, who finished an impressive eighth in her return to action after suffering a broken knee nearly a year ago in Val d’Isere, France.  Julia Mancuso was 16th, Stacey Cook 18th and Leanne Smith 29th as five Americans finished in the top 30.

“It’s been such a long road for me and to be fast in my first race back is just an incredible feeling. I felt so much more comforatble today than I have in any of the training runs,” said McKennis. “I felt like I was skiing well, but I no idea that I’d come down in a decent position. I’m so pumped up for another day of downhill tomorrow.”

The injury-decimated Canadian team fielded two young Albertans for their first World Cup starts on Friday in Lake Louise. Sarah Freeman,19, of Pincher Creek, and Tess Davies, 20, of Canmore, finished 55^th and 54^th on the day, respectively.

“It’s impressive,” said Davies of Vonn’s performance. “It’s my first race, so maybe by the time I’ve done as many races as she has done, I can think about trying to win by two seconds!”

After this weekend’s races in Lake Louise, the women will head to Beaver Creek for races next week.

“I’m so excited to finally be able to race in my hometown,” said Vonn. “It’s going to be awesome. We’re only going to have that one inspection for the super G, so I need to be really focused to be ready for the race on Wednesday.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS