VAL D’ISERE, France — Lindsey Vonn began her day with Austrian TV cameras trained on her as she left the team hotel in early light. She then headed to the course as the overwhelming favorite in the super-combi at the world championships.
All was going according to plan Friday when Vonn led the downhill portion of the race. Hours later, she was disqualified from the slalom for splitting a gate.
“I’ve been feeling so great this week that to come down hard like that today is hard to take,” Vonn said. “I was really confused for a while and really frustrated. That’s the thing with slalom. Anything can happen.”
Austria’s Kathrin Zettel was the surprise winner, posting the fifth-fastest downhill and third-fastest slalom.
Zettel had a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.13 seconds. Lara Gut, a 17-year-old Swiss, finished second, 0.56 seconds behind, and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria was third, 0.88 back. The top U.S. finisher was Stacey Cook in 16th place.
“It wasn’t realistic for me to win gold in the combined,” Zettel said. “There were so many other favorites — Lindsey and (Maria) Riesch and (Anja) Paerson. For sure, not me.”
Riesch finished fourth while defending champion Paerson missed a gate in the downhill.
Zettel was ahead when Vonn came down as the final skier in the slalom leg. The American started with a 1.48-second advantage but made two big errors on the upper section of the course. She appeared to split the gate in an effort to regain time.
“She was just a little bit out of position and the pitch quickly shot her out,” U.S women’s head coach Jim Tracy said. “She was just confused.”
Zettel saw Vonn struggling and later recounted what she said to herself: “Oops, that could be good for me.”
It wasn’t immediately clear Vonn had split a gate, and the leaderboard initially flashed her time as second. Vonn posed for pictures as if she had won the silver medal.
“It’s mixed emotions and a pretty disappointing day all in all,” Vonn said. “I did all the photos for second place and was pretty happy even though I thought I could have won. Then I went inside and my husband told me I didn’t make the gate.”
Vonn’s coaching staff went into the race jury room to check the tape and decided not to appeal after confirming Vonn did indeed split.
Vonn opened the championships by winning the super-G Tuesday and was aiming for her fourth consecutive victory in a week, having also posted World Cup wins in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, last weekend. She will still be the favorite for Sunday’s downhill.
“I’m going to work hard and do everything I can to be on the podium in that race,” Vonn said.
Vonn planned to train for the downhill Saturday.
