SESTRIERE, Italy — Vail’s Lindsey Vonn joined Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves as the most successful American downhill skiers.
Among current competitors, she has no equal.
Vonn blew away the field Saturday for her fourth win in seven World Cup downhills this season. It was the ninth downhill victory of her career, matching the mark of Street and Rahlves.
“Lindsey is pretty much unbeatable now,” U.S. downhill coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. “The only thing that could have beaten her here was herself.”
Using a much straighter line than any other skier, Vonn covered the 1.84-mile course in 1 minute, 38.86 seconds.
The race announcer yelled, “She’s a speed train!” as Vonn posted one split time faster than another.
“I took some chances going into the forest, there’s a couple turns in there and I definitely went a little straighter,” Vonn said. “But I was out of my tuck and just being clean and solid but definitely carrying speed down the fall line.”
Vonn returned to the top of the overall standings, three points ahead of Nicole Hosp, who finished 23rd.
With Bode Miller on top in the men’s overall standings, this is the first time Americans have led the men’s and women’s ranks since Tamara McKinney and Phil Mahre won overall titles in 1983.
On a clear and sunny day at the site of the 2006 Turin Olympics, Vonn was followed by Canada’s Kelly Vanderbeek, who was 0.62 behind, and Italy’s Nadia Fanchini, 0.77 back.
Vanderbeek was only a couple hundredths of a second behind Vonn at the course’s midpoint, but lost time on the bottom section.
Austrian wins slalom.
While Miller didn’t finish, Reinfried Herbst put together the two fastest times to win a World Cup slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Herbst, capping his comeback from a serious knee injury, had a combined time of 1:42.0. The Austrian defeated Manfred Moelgg of Italy by 0.65 seconds, and Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was third.
Miller straddled a gate halfway down the slope and did not finish the first run. Miller was not alone, as 13 other skiers did not finish on the tough slope.
Ted Ligety of the United States was seventh.
