Golden Girl, Golden Again!

Frank Gunn/ The Canadian Press AP

Lindsey Vonn has won the most World Cup races of any female in the history of World Cup. Lake Louise Canada has been one of her favorite mountains over the years with 15 previous wins on the mountain. So there’s no doubt that when she saw two downhill races scheduled for this weekend at Lake Louise, she circled this as her comeback weekend. Vonn has dealt with many injuries over the past two years. ACL and MCL tears kept her out of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, then while training this summer fractured her ankle and most recently required stitches after breaking up a fight with her dogs. The ankle injury this summer put a big question mark on her status for this year. Vonn has battled back from injuries before though and this weekend proved why she’s still the best Downhill skier in the world.

Downhill and Super G, unlike the technical races of slalom and giant slalom, is only one run. Within that one run of around 1 min and 45 seconds, the difference between winning and losing can be fractions of a second. Without a second run, mistakes are even more costly. Besides Vonn, the US team is loaded with speed skiers. Stacey Cook, Alice McKennis, and Laurenne Ross are all trying to keep up with Vonn on the Downhill.

Friday Vonn showed why she’s the world’s fastest. Vonn seemed to take a wide line at the top of the course, she pushed quite a bit of snow in the middle, but turned the jets on in the final half of the course and won by .58 seconds. As she finished, Vonn laid down on the snow with her arms raised proudly in victory. Vonn was followed by Austrians Cornelia Huetter and Ramona Siebenhofer and American Stacey Cook finished 5th.

Saturday Vonn attacked the mountain, putting in a flawless run and fixing the possible glitches from Friday. Vonn looked at easy as she flew down the course. She used her tuck in some sections and came out to make solid turns in other sections. As she finished the course, she stood this time as she raised her hands in victory again and yelled, “I love this place!” Vonn won by 1.05 seconds over Fabienne Suter of Switzerland and Cornelia Huetter of Austria and American Stacey Cook finished 11th.

Sunday Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Cook and the Americans looked to control the first Super G race of the year as well. Again, with only one run down the course, mistakes need to be limited. It was another beautiful day on the mountain with the sun shining and the snow packed perfectly.

Mikaela Shiffrin (who won 2 slalom races last week) will usually stretch out to the Super G, but she is a technical racer and is generally not as successful at the speed races. Shiffrin did have a nice run and finished third for the Americans and 15th overall, just behind teammate Laurenne Ross in 12th overall. This is a race better suited for the 5’10 Vonn though. With 2 wins already under her belt this weekend, could she sweep the weekend with a Super G win? The Queen of Speed did not let off the gas pedal in her run until she had crossed the finish line and seen that she was indeed in first place once again. Vonn had a spectacular run and as she finished, the second place Austrian Tamara Tippler could only shake her head in amazement of the weekend Vonn had just finished. Tippler’s Austrian teammate Cornelia Huetter finished third. Huetter had an amazing weekend as well with a 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes and she is looking like she could be Vonn’s main competition this year.

Next week, the women head to Are Sweeden for a Slalom and a Giant Slalom race. Shiffrin will look to get back to the top of the podium and follow up on the 2 slalom wins she took home last week in Aspen.