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The four-time overall champion Lindsey Vonn, who took 27 days off recently to regain her strength from an intestinal problem, clocked 1 minute, 38.25 seconds down the Olympia delle Tofane course on Saturday. (Christophe Pallot/Getty Images)

(PhatzRadio / CBC Sports) — Lindsey Vonn is back at full speed.

That means she’s back to being half a second faster than anyone else. And most importantly, back to being fully healthy after a nasty bacterial problem that ate away the muscles in her powerful legs and sapped her energy over the last couple months.

Vonn grabbed her first victory in more than five weeks in a World Cup downhill Saturday in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, displaying the form that led her to four overall titles in the past five seasons.

“I’m excited to be racing and I have that fire again and I trust that my body is strong enough to ski the way I want to ski,” Vonn said. “It wasn’t always the case in all the races this year. I’m back to my old self and it’s a good feeling.”

Vonn clocked 1 minute, 38.25 seconds down the sun-drenched Olympia delle Tofane course. Current overall leader Tina Maze finished second, 0.43 seconds behind, and Vonn’s American teammate Leanne Smith was third, 0.89 back.

Larisa Yurkiw of Owen Sound, Ont., was the only Canadian in the race. She finished 43rd in 1:42.36 for 57.31 points.

After failing to finish two consecutive races in France in mid-December — including an uncharacteristic fall in downhill, the discipline she’s Olympic champion in — Vonn left the circuit for 27 days and missed six races. Having been hospitalized with an intestinal illness in November, she wondered whether she would win again this season.

“When I decided to take the break I was so weak,” Vonn said, adding that doctors never figured out exactly what type of bacterial problem she had. “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to build enough strength back up in that short time to be able to race. My legs were skinny, I lost all my muscle, I had no endurance. I really was struggling physically to be where I was before.”

Staying away

Vonn didn’t touch her skis during her time off in the United States.

“I was off snow completely,” she said. “I was just in the gym working out two to three times a day, doing a lot of endurance training, a lot of weight training — just really trying to get back to where I was in the fall, before I got sick.”

In her first races back last weekend in St. Anton, Austria, Vonn finished sixth and fourth in a downhill and super-G, respectively.

This time, there was no stopping her.

Vonn made a slight error midway down and nearly touched her right hip to the snow. But she had the strength to regain her balance and keep charging.

“I finally feel like myself again,” said Vonn, who was already celebrating and smiling before the came to a stop in the finish. “I feel healthy, finally, and I’m able to ski the way I want to. It’s good to be back on top.”

The race was held in perfect conditions, with temperatures well below the freezing mark making for hard snow, and clear skies allowing fans to marvel at the jagged snow-dusted peaks which are some of the most spectacular in the Dolomite Range.

Inching closer

It was Vonn’s seventh win in Cortina and the 58th of her career, moving her within four of the all-time record held by Austrian legend Annemarie Moser-Proell.

“St. Anton was a good performance, but definitely not my best,” Vonn said. “Cortina is a place where I’ve had a lot of success, so I knew what I needed to do and I was finally able to put all of the pieces together.”

Vonn’s last win was a super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec. 8.

For Maze, it was her first podium of the season in downhill — having already registered wins in three other disciplines.

“I feel like I can be on the podium in every event,” the Slovenian said.

Maze extended her massive lead in the overall standings to 670 points ahead of Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who lost control toward the end of her run and did not finish.

It was the second podium of Smith’s career, having finished second in a downhill in Val d’Isere, France, last month.

“I just wanted to be smooth today,” said Smith, who blew her knee out on this course four years ago. “I felt like I over-edged a little bit in training yesterday because the snow feels so good. It’s really important in downhill to be smooth and consistent and barely edge your way down the course.”

American results

With Alice McKennis having won in St. Anton last weekend and Stacey Cook finishing second to Vonn twice in Lake Louise, Alberta, at the start of the season, it’s the first time four different American women have reached the podium in downhill in a single campaign.

Vonn leads the downhill standings 129 points ahead of Cook, McKennis is fourth, Smith sixth, Mancuso 11th and Laurenne Ross — who also has podium potential — 21st.

“It’s fun to be on the podium with your teammates,” Vonn said. “Everyone is feeding off each other. We have a great energy about the team right now.”

Racing continues in Cortina on Sunday with a super-G, a race Vonn has won the last three years.

“Right now I’m just trying to focus on one race at a time,” Vonn said when asked if she could reach Moser-Proell this season. “It’s definitely possible if I continue to ski like I did today.”

Alpine skiing: Rebensburg wins foggy Super-G in Cortina

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (Reuters) – Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg made the most of changing conditions to take her second victory of the World Cup season in a women’s Super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Sunday.

The 2010 giant slalom Olympic champion beat snow and fog to clock one minute and 16.45 seconds and snatch her second win in the discipline after the World Cup finals in Schladming last year.

Rebensburg, who also won a giant slalom in Are last month and now has 10 World Cup race wins, beat second-placed Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer by 0.33 seconds.

“Obviously the conditions were special but I think I skied a pretty good run. In the end, only the result matters and it’s a good one to take before the world championships”, said the German.

Schmidhofer, 23, timed her first podium finish perfectly to boost her chances of being selected for the national team at the world championships on home snow in Schladming in two weeks’ time.

World Cup overall leader Tina Maze finished third, 0.01 behind Schmidhofer, for her 15th podium in 23 races this winter.

“I was not feeling too well and I skied a controlled, precise race. I’m proud of being on the podium in these conditions”, said the Slovenian, on course for the record of 18 podiums in a season held by Liechtenstein’s Hanni Wenzel since 1980.

Maze, now leading Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch by 718 points in the overall World Cup standings – the equivalent of seven victories with only 14 races left – is the only skier ever to have scored top three placings in six different disciplines in the same season.

“Tina is an inspiration because she comes from the giant slalom like me. I hope to become an all-rounder myself in the future,” said Rebensburg.

American Lindsey Vonn, winner of Saturday’s downhill on the same course, finished seventh, 0.83 off the pace.

The women’s circuit moves to Maribor next week, a home weekend for Maze, who made it clear it was one of her main goals of the season.

“To race in front of my home crowd as the World Cup leader will be one of the highlights of the season for me. I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.

(Reporting by Patrick Lang, editing by Alan Baldwin)

Alpine skiing: Neureuther emulates father with Wengen win

(Reuters) – Germany’s Felix Neureuther won the classic Wengen World Cup slalom on Sunday, 39 years on from his father Christian’s last victory there.

Winner of the men’s parallel event at home in Munich on New Year’s Day, Neureuther skied a near-perfect second run to beat favorite and first leg winner Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 0.21 seconds.

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, a four times winner of the slalom in the Swiss resort, was third and 0.25 behind Neureuther’s winning combined time of one minute and 50.53 seconds. It was his 12th podium in Wengen.

The win was the fourth in the World Cup for 28-year-old Neureuther, the son of German slalom specialists Christian and Rosi Mittermaier.

Christian Neureuther won six World Cup slaloms in his career, including Wengen twice in 1973 and 1974.

“More than a dream, to win here was a goal,” said Neureuther, who had already emulated his father in 2010 when he won his first World Cup slalom in Kitzbuehel.

“Classics like Wengen are special. I already found that out when I won in Kitzbuehel. But to be on the podium with Marcel, who looked unbeatable in the last three races, and Kostelic, who has won so many times here means a lot,” he added.

Thanks to his second place, World Cup holder Hirscher increased his lead in the overall standings to 188 points over Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal.

The men’s circuit moves to Kitzbuehel next weekend for a Super-G, a downhill, a slalom and a super-combined.

“To win one week before Kitzbuehel and two weeks before the world championships is obviously significant. But there’s no rivalry between Marcel and I, we’re great friends, often training together,” said Neureuther.

“We’re just trying to offer a great show,” added the German, who trails the Austrian by 114 points in the slalom World Cup.

(Reporting by Manuele Lang, editing by Alan Baldwin)

Skiing Roundup: Lindsey Vonn dominates in women’s downhill is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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