ASPEN, Colo.—USA’s Lindsey Vonn posted the top time for the second straight day at the FIS World Cup women’s downhill training on Thursday and said she wasn’t even going all-out.
“I skied the turns well, but I wasn’t charging as much as I can, especially on the bottom,” Vonn said. “I pretty much stood up the whole bottom section of the course.”
Vonn covered the Little Nell Run course in 1 minute, 34.30 seconds. Wednesday, she finished in 1:34.07.
“I was skiing mostly conservatively because of my almost-crash yesterday,” Vonn said. “There’s definitely a good 20 or 30 percent left to go.”
Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl was second at 1:34.39. Martina Schild of Switzerland was third at 1:34.70.
Stacy Cook at No. 6 had the second-best time for a U.S. skier at 1:35.24.
Vonn said she routinely increases her intensity in later training runs.
“I always do that. First day rounds are at 60 percent, the second day rounds are 80 percent and the third day my race runs are at 100 percent,” Vonn said. “It’s just the way I like to do it.”
“If I ski perfectly in the first training runs, I never feel like I have anything to improve upon,” Vonn said. “I have to think of something to better myself. Otherwise it’s not as much fun and I lose focus.”
Vonn also credited an extensive video review with finding and fixing some elements of her Wednesday run.
“I arced almost all the hard turns that I didn’t arc yesterday,” said Vonn. “I definitely cleaned it up considerably from yesterday.”
Vonn placed sixth in the combined at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the top U.S. finish.
Goergl, who was second in the Giant Slalom at Panorama last month, said both her training days were good.
“This sets me up for my three best events, the Giant Slalom, the Super G and the Downhill,” the 24-year-old said.
Martina Schild concurred.
“I felt better than yesterday,” she said. “I had the better line on everything and I know there are some points that I can be a little bit better (on).”
She is coming off a first place finish in the Super G at Lake Louise.
“It was a big thing for me to win at Lake Louise and get it done at the beginning of the season,” she said. “Now I hope I can stay there at the front.”
World Cup points leader Marlies Schild of Austria didn’t fare as well Thursday. Her time of 1:39.76 was 55th of the field of 60.
“My training runs were not so good,” she said. “I hope the rest of the week will get better.”
Marlies Schild ranked second overall in 2006-07 and said she maintains unwavering motivation to excel.
“You always want to get better,” she said. “To get better technically. To ski faster.”
