Lindsey Vonn achieves fifth-straight World Cup downhill podium in Tarvisio, Italy
Marco Trovati/AP photo
Lindsey Vonn came into the Tarvisio downhill hoping for a top-5 finish. She left with her fifth-straight World Cup podium.
“It was actually really tough and I tried not to have too much expectation because I knew these other girls were going to be fast. The snow was really soft, it was really hard to see in the middle and I made a pretty big mistake, but I’m happy to be on the podium again,” Vonn told FIS. “For me what’s important is to be consistent and I’m really happy that I could do that despite the conditions.”
With fog rolling in on Saturday afternoon, the former Vail resident rocketed to third in the penultimate downhill leading up to the Milano Cortina Olympics. Italian Nicol Delago delighted the home crowd with her first-career World Cup win. The 30-year-old’s time on the 845-meter track was 1 minute, 46.28 seconds, two-tenths ahead of runner-up Kira Weidle-Winkelmann, with Vonn 0.06 seconds behind the German.
“I was so nervous this morning and I couldn’t wait to go down to ski this slope. I really like this course,” Delago said. “I tried to ski fast but I didn’t think it was a perfect run.”
Vonn hinted Friday that the Di Prampero’s long gliding sections didn’t particularly suit her skill set. Her premonitions came to bear on the gradual gliding Cappia segment of the course, where the 41-year-old was just the seventh fastest in the field. She built speed, however, through the 47% grades of the Muro Lungo, the course’s steepest section.
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Vonn reached 136.3 kilometers per hour — the fastest top speed in the field. She flew off the final major jump and rode a flat ski along the ensuing side hill of the Prati Salman into the Variante FIS, posting the quickest final sector of the day en route to a total time of 1:46.54 and her 144th-career podium.
“I was so slow every day on the top, so my plan was to be faster there and then ski well in the middle,” Vonn said. “And then I made a mistake on the triple, but otherwise I think I skied pretty well, and that was my goal. Anytime I can do that I’m happy.”
Defending downhill world champion Breezy Johnson tied Laura Pirovano for sixth and fellow American Jacqueline Wiles followed up her podium in Zauchensee with a 13th-place finish. Johnson said the top section of the course has “been kind of an enigma” for the U.S. team.
“But I felt like I skied well,” Johnson added. “I didn’t feel like I made any huge mistakes, so overall I was pretty happy with my skiing. Just trying to move forward to tomorrow.”
The U.S. put six in the top-30, with Allison Mollin, Haley Cutler and Isabella Wright finishing 19th, 23rd and 29th, respectively.
Vonn, the current downhill globe leader, is the only athlete on the circuit to podium in all five women’s downhill races this season. She won the opening event in St. Moritz and also the most recent downhill in Zauchensee. The last time Vonn achieved five-straight podiums in a single discipline was during the 2017-2018 season. The 20-time crystal globe winner is also currently third in the overall and super-G standings.
Friday was the fourth World Cup downhill race hosted in Tarvisio. Vonn finished 0.01 seconds behind winner Gina Stechert on Feb. 21, 2009 before taking the super-G the following day. In 2011, Vonn finished second in both the super-combined and downhill on consecutive days before winning the super-G on the third day of competition.
“Everyone said ‘Oh, it’s a big advantage because you’re the only one that’s skied here.’ It’s not an advantage because I don’t remember it,” Vonn commented. “But I do remember the fans and I do remember the atmosphere. It’s so fun to race when there’s so many excited people and fans.”
The women will contest a super-G on Sunday, followed by a pair of speed races in Crans Montana, Switzerland Jan. 30-31. The Olympic downhill is slated for Feb. 7.