Vonn equals Stenmark with 19th World title
Print Edition
LINDSEY Vonn dominated the Super-G at the Alpine skiing World Cup finals in Meribel, France, yesterday to add a record-equalling 19th crystal globe to her trophy collection.
The American, who won her seventh downhill title on Wednesday, took her 67th World Cup victory and her fifth Super-G globe. Vonn beat Austria’s Anna Fenninger by 0.49 seconds with Slovenia’s Tina Maze third and a further 0.31 adrift.
The title, coming in a season that has seen her return from a year out and two knee operations, put her on par with Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark as the most successful skier of all time.
Stenmark, who holds the record of 86 World Cup wins, achieved his 19th title on the men’s circuit in 1984.
“Today it was win or lose. But my victory yesterday and the downhill globe boosted my confidence. My record in Cortina was also a liberation,” said Vonn.
The American was referring to her 63rd World Cup win in the Italian resort in January which beat Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell’s 1970s record for a female skier. “It was a great season but not perfect because I had ups and downs. I only started training in October and I can see that things are improving and that I’ll be ready to claim back the overall World Cup next season. That’s my goal,” said Vonn.
Despite her nine victories this winter, Vonn is not in contention for the overall crown which remains open with only the giant slalom and slalom to come this weekend. Reigning World Cup champion Fenninger leads 2013 overall winner Maze by 32 points. The Austrian may have to take part in Sunday’s slalom to stay in contention even if she rarely races in the discipline. “I haven’t made my decision yet. We will have a team meeting to discuss it,” she said.
As for Maze, the only skier to take part in all five disciplines, she said she had recovered from recent fatigue and was ready to fight to the finish.
“I don’t look at the points, I concentrate on my skiing,” she said.
In the men’s, Dustin Cook won his first super-G race, and Kjetil Jansrud gained some ground on Marcel Hirscher in the fight for the overall title by finishing second.
Cook, a 26-year-old Canadian, finished .05 seconds ahead of Olympic super-G champion Jansrud. Roger Brice of France was .08 behind in third. Jansrud has already won the season-long super-G title, and the 29-year-old Norwegian also took the downhill title on Wednesday.
Cook won silver in the super-G last month at the world championships, and had earned a first World Cup podium with a third-place finish in the discipline two weeks ago in Kvitfjell.
“I’m definitely not used to this, maybe someone like Kjetil who wins a lot, but this is all new and all exciting for me,” Cook said. “I kind of came out of nowhere on the radar. It took a little longer than I expected but I’m just happy to here.”
Cook had never placed higher than 12th prior to this season, and contemplated retirement.
“I was on the verge this summer of not skiing,” he said. “But I just kept getting better and better and now I just want to compete for the podium every weekend.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
