St. Moritz, Switzerland – American ski racer Lindsey Vonn pushed her Audi FIS Alpine World Cup points total to 1,070 with a super combined victory on Friday in bluebird St. Moritz.

Friday’s race was the first super combined of the season after a December race in Val d’Isere, France, was canceled.

“St. Moritz is a great hill for super combined. I felt like I had a really good downhill run, but I was a little bit nervous,” Vonn admitted. “I didn’t think I had enough time ahead of the slalom girls, but I put together a solid slalom run to hang onto the lead.

“I’m more confident this year in slalom,” she added. “My equipment is working really well and I feel more sure of myself. A lot of times if I don’t have a lot of training in slalom, I lack confidence and you can see it in my body language when I’m skiing. But today I knew what I had to do. I knew where I had to be smart and use good tactics on the pitch and then let it go on the flats.”

It was Vonn’s seventh victory of the season and the Vail, Colo. resident now leads the overall chase by 302 points over Slovenian Tina Maze, who finished Friday’s race in second. With her 48th career World Cup victory, Vonn has won in every discipline this season except slalom. The Olympic gold medalist also leads the downhill, super G and now super combined standings.

Other American women finished Friday outside the top 10. Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., was 13th, followed by North Conway, N.H.’s Leanne Smith in 18th and Laurenne Ross, of Bend, Ore.,  in 20th. Stacey Cook, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was 15th in the downhill but did not start the slalom portion of Friday’s super combined, as was the case with Canada’s Larissa Yurkiw. The only other Canadian starter, Marie-Michele Gagnon, finished the day in 22nd place.

Vonn led after the downhill portion, Smith was fourth and Mancuso fifth prior to the slalom.

“Everyone is skiing so well right now. We all have so much confidence,” said Vonn. “Leanne (Smith) has been really fast in a lot of races and today she put it through the finish in the downhill without any mistakes. She knows she can do it and the same goes for Laurenne (Ross) and Stacey (Cook). Julia (Mancuso) has had a lot of success in her career and she knows what to do. We all are excited about the way we are skiing and I think we’re all really excited for tomorrow’s race.”

A downhill is slated for Saturday in St. Moritz with a second super combined on Sunday.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
St. Moritz, Switzerland – Jan. 27, 2012
Women’s Super Combined