World Cup alpine ski racers went to spectator-friendly night slalom skiing last week in their first races of the New Year, held dat Zagreb, Croatia and in Moscow, Russia.
Sunday's World Cup women's night slalom at Zagreb awarded the annual Snow Queen trophy to the slalom winner and also paid $456,000 in prize money to the top 30 racers.
Thousands of spectators watched reigning World Cup queen Lindsey Vonn, 24, of Minnesota grab the first-run lead on the relatively flat Zagreb hill and build a nearly one-second cushion in the second before falling just before the steep finish.
Despite close to perfect skiing in the top and middle sections of her second run, Vonn went out of a turn too straight just before the finish. Winning her third straight World Cup slalom was Maria Riesch of Germany. Riesch also took over the overall lead with 607 points over Finland's Tanja Poutiainen (534) and Vonn (530) fell all the way to third.
Sun Valley native Hailey Duke made the third second run of her new World Cup career but also ran into trouble in her run and DNFd.
The women compete next at Maribor, Slovenia Jan. 10-11.
Bode, skiing with Putin
Germany's Felix Neureuther went head to head against Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Grange in a sudden death race to win a parallel slalom at the Skoda FIS Alpine World Cup Promotional Event in Moscow, Russia on Friday night.
Two-time World Cup overall champion Bode Miller, 31, of Franconia, N.H. edged Olympic combined gold medalist Ted Ligety, 24, of Park City, Utah in the all-American Small Final to finish third.
Organizers estimated over 25,000 people attended the FIS alpine promotional event held on a specially constructed ramp towering 183 feet over the heart of the Russian capital.
Fourteen of the top athletes on the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup were invited to the promotional event designed to raise awareness for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin joined the athletes for lunch prior to the race and then invited all the competitors to fly with him and President Dmitry Medvedev to Sochi on Saturday for a morning of skiing.
The 14-gate head-to-head slalom was held on an enormous ramp measuring nearly 500 feet long and just over 120 feet wide. It was covered with over 140,000 cubic feet of snow that was trucked in from Siberia specifically for the competition.
A total $200,000 in prize money was awarded with winner Neureuther taking home $30,000. Ligety and Miller earned $10,000 pay days just for starting and Miller added $10,000 for his third place.
The World Cup men had their own night slalom at Zagreb Tuesday, Jan. 6 and move on to Adelboden, Switz. for SL and GS Jan. 10-11. On the horizon in the next three weekends—the annual stops at Wengen, Switz., Kitzbuehel, Austria and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
