American Lindsey Vonn moved into third place on the all-time World Cup women's list of victories with 47 Sunday by winning the super giant slalom at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. She enjoyed a 180-point weekend at Cortina with her second place in Saturday's downhill.
Vonn now leads the Audi FIS World Cup overall standings by 291 points over runner-up Tina Maze of Slovenia.
Meanwhile, last year's World Cup men's overall winner Ivica Kostelic, 32, of Croatia started to put some serious heat on current men's World Cup overall leader Marcel Hirscher, 22, of Austria during the 82nd Lauberhorn weekend at Wengen, Switz.
Kostelic, the 2003 world championship slalom gold medalist, won the Lauberhorn super combined Friday and added the Wengen slalom victory Sunday to move within 30 points of leader Hirscher. The point spread is 725 for Hirscher and 695 for second-place Kostelic.
Fifth-year World Cup racer Hirscher has won five of his eight career races so far this season—two giant slalom and three slalom—but Hirscher was disqualified Sunday at the Wengen slalom and Kostelic capitalized.
Here are top World Cup standings and top Americans after the four events (3 men, 2 women) at Wengen, Switz. and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy last weekend:
Men: 1—Marcel Hirscher (Aust.) 725. 2—Ivica Kostelic (Cro.) 695. 3—Beat Feux (Switz.) 545. 4—Ted Ligety (USA) 493. 5—Aksel Lund Svindal (Nor.) 490. 6—Bode Miller (USA) 448. Ligety leads the GS standings 380-365 over Hirscher and Miller is second in the downhill standings 260-219 behind Swiss racer Feux.
Women: 1—Lindsey Vonn (USA) 884 points. 2—Tina Maze (Slov.) 593. 3—Marlies Schild (Aust.) 540. 4—Elisabeth Goergl (Aust.) 516. 5—Anna Fenninger (Aust.) 467. 6—Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germ.) 466. 7—Julia Mancuso (USA) 401. Vonn tops the DH standings 330-203 over Goergl and also leads the SG standings 313-226 over Fabienne Suter of Switzerland.
The women's World Cup moves to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia for a giant slalom and a slalom Jan. 21-22 U.S. women are visiting their Official European Training Base of Obergurgl-Hochgurgl, Austria to prepare for the Slovenian technical races.
World Cup men are in Kitzbuehel, Austria for the annual Hahnenkamm Friday through Sunday, Jan. 20-22. It includes downhill, super giant slalom, traditional combined and slalom. Results from last weekend:
Big weekend for U.S. at Cortina
Vonn dominated the Cortina super G to notch the 47th Audi FIS Alpine World Cup win of her career and launch ahead of Austrian great Renate Goetschl (46) to stand alone at third on the women's all-time win list.
Still in front are Austria's Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Switzerland's Vreni Schneider (55). It was Vonn's fourth consecutive super G victory in Cortina and sixth win at the Italian resort.
Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley was fifth and Leanne Smith of North Conway, N.H. placed 10th as the U.S. Ski Team captured the Cortina Trophy, recognizing the most successful nation over the two-day race series.
Said Vonn, "Cortina is a very special place for me. It's where I got my first World Cup podium and I've always had success here, so I was really trying hard today and risking a lot. My run was a good combination of risk and aggression, but I still stayed in control. The high speed made it more challenging than normal. I was on the limit the entire race.
"The records in skiing are really important to me. It's the history of our sport and it's something you can look back on and be proud of what you've done with your career. I never thought that I'd be able to reach as many victories as I have now.
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"Renate (Goetschl) has always been such a role model. I can't believe I'm at a point where I can stand alongside her in history."
Setting Vonn up for Sunday's victory was her performance in Saturday's Cortina downhill.
Battling windy conditions, Vonn finished second in the Olympia della Tofane downhill at Cortina Saturday. Stacey Cook of Mammoth, Ca. was sixth and Mancuso placed ninth as Italian Deniella Marighetti captured the first victory of her career.
It was the ninth podium finish at Cortina for Vonn, and her sixth podium this season. The other Americans had notable finishes as well.
Cook's sixth-place finish tied for her third-best career FIS World Cup result. The last time she finished as high was Feb. 26, 2011, in Are, Sweden. She now has three top-10 downhill results in a row, after securing eighth place in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Aust. Jan. 7 and ninth last March in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. Mancuso recorded her third straight top-10 FIS World Cup finish.
Vonn said, "I'm really happy with today's race. It was tough conditions out there. It was really windy and we had to ski well and also have a little bit of luck, and it could have gone either way. It could have been a lot worse, so second place is a solid result given the conditions.
"It's always tough, whether you're leading overall or you're trailing and you're trying to catch up. For some reason, the overall is always on my mind. For me, the main focus is just to ski my best every day and try not to think about the points. It's really hard not to think about the points, but the main thing is just to try to ski my best."
Cook said, "I don't really like to think at all about what's going on. My coach, the other day, said I was like a fine wine, getting better with age. I turned back to him and said, "Yeah, I've always kind of been a late bloomer." All that belief comes through with a little bit of timing, if you start to believe in yourself. They definitely brought me on a big journey."
Men's results from Wengen
Olympic super combined champion Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) opened the 82nd Lauberhorn weekend in Wengen Friday, Jan. 13 with third place in the discipline that brought him Vancouver gold.
Miller, second in the downhill portion, held on to the super combined podium—his third World Cup podium this season—as Croatian Ivica Kostelic earned his third win of the season.
It was Miller's seventh career podium in super combined and ninth podium in Wengen. Also, it was the 74th World Cup podium of Miller's 15-year career.
Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) moved up from 19th in the downhill to finish sixth and jump to third in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall standings.
In Saturday's downhill, Miller skied a powerful run down the Lauberhorn, dropping in and out of the lead all the way down, but didn't have quite enough to upend a red hot Beat Feuz of Switzerland.
Miller was fifth in downhill as Feuz took his podium in two days, grabbing the Audi FIS World Cup downhill lead from Miller, who was gunning for his third win in the classic Lauberhorn—the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit. Miller's fifth-place finish was his fourth straight downhill top-10 result.
Sasha Rearick, U.S. men's head coach, said, "Right from the top Bode was going for it—holding his tuck hard and doing what he had to do be able to chase the win down from starting at No. 22. Then right at the bottom of the Haneggschuss he got rocked by some bumps and from there down, just lost his speed. It's a bummer, because he was right on the line and in a position to win until he hit those bumps."
On Sunday, defending Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion Ivica Kostelic of Croatia moved closer to current overall leader Marcel Hirscher of Austria with victory in the Wengen slalom as Hirscher was disqualified for straddling a gate. It was Kostelic's second win of the weekend after opening the 82nd Lauberhorn with victory in super combined. No American men made the second run.
