Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Temperatures dipped to -40 — the point where the Fahrenheit scale meets Celsius – in Banff National Park on Saturday morning to plunge World Cup racers into the deep freeze for the second of two women’s downhills in Lake Louise won by Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany.

Unlike Friday, resort officials shut down the snow guns to prevent the fog that delayed Friday’s race. Hoefl-Riesch clocked a time of 1:55.09 seconds, close to one second faster than her winning time from Friday, to overtake Switzerland’s Lara Gut in the overall women’s alpine World Cup standings. Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather was second, 0.34 seconds back, with Austria’s Anna Fenninger in third, 0.47 seconds off the pace. On the podium Friday, Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden and Elena Fanchini were not that far away today, finishing respectively 4^th and 5^th.

“The slope was faster today but my run wasn’t as clean as yesterday,” said the German winner. “I lost a little bit of time in the middle section, but my performance today was still good enough for the win, so I am really satisfied.”

American ski racer Lindsey Vonn made a big step in the standings on Saturday to finish 11^th, 1.26 seconds behind, in comparison with yesterday’s result.

“I definitely did a much better job today. I was much more confident and I went out and I attacked,” Vonn said after finishing a disappointing 40^th on Friday in her first World Cup race since knee surgery in February. “It’s a great step and I was much more aggressive today, much more self-confident. I still made a couple mistakes, but in general I’m really with the race today and it gives me a lot more confidence going into tomorrow.

“My goal is definitely still to be as prepared as possible for Sochi so I’m going to look again at the schedule after this weekend,” Vonn confirmed. “I don’t know if that means I’ll race some races or no races or all of the races. I really don’t know what that means yet. My focus is Sochi and however I can come into those Olympics the most prepared is what I’m going to do.

“I’m optimistic,” Vonn added. “I learned that from my mom. The glass is half full and I was dealt a really bad hand and I’m going to play my cards to the best of my ability. It’s like chess. You have to map out your strategy and I’m going to take this season like a chess game. I’m going to play my cards the best that I can and hopefully I’ll be in a check-mate position when it comes to the Olympics.”

The U.S. speed team women countered Friday’s disappointing results by posting three top-20 results in Saturday’s race. Team veteran Stacey Cook also moved up from yesterday, finishing just behind Vonn in 12^th. Leanne Smith and Julia Mancuso finished 17^th and 21^st, respectively and Aurora, Ore. rookie Jackie Wiles finished just outside the points in 31^st.

Still, the U.S. women remained far off last season’s blistering pace. Last year in Lake Louise, Cook nabbed two second-place finishes.

The home team was likewise disappointing. Canada’s lone entry in Saturday’s race, Larisa Yurkiw of Owen Sound, Ontario, skied to a 26^th-place finish, far slower than her career-best seventh-place result on Friday.

“I’m definitely positive about the way the momentum’s going and building off this for tomorrow and weekends to come,” said Yurkiw, 25.  “I think because I had such a rockin’ day yesterday, I was almost a little bit disappointed today. I think I struggled with keeping things simple today. I wanted it pretty bad and I added the intensity in places where I didn’t necessarily need it.”

Yurkiw’s results in Lake Louise, however, mean that Canada now has a second downhill starting spot on the World Cup circuit instead of one, which was the case during the 2012-13 season.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Lake Louise (AB), Canada – Dec. 7, 2013
Women’s Downhill #2