Fenninger captures first gold of Worlds

Sports Sports | Feb 4, 2015

Vail Daily staff report

From left; Slovenia's Tina Maze, second place' Austria's Anna Fenninger, first place, and United States' Lindsey Vonn, third place, celebrate on the podium after the women's super-G competition at the alpine skiing world championships on Tuesday, in Beaver Creek.
*AP | AP*

BEAVER CREEK — Austria’s Anna Fenninger, the defending Olympic champion in super-G, became the first racer to capture gold at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Championships on Tuesday at Beaver Creek.

Fenninger finished the Championships-opening women’s super-G with a time of 1 minute, 10.29 seconds, eclipsing Slovenia’s Tina Maze by just 3-hundredths of a second and American Lindsey Vonn by 15-hundredths.

This is Fenninger’s second gold at Worlds — she won super-combined in Garmisch, Germany, in 2011 — and fourth overall.

Running out of the No. 18 bib, Vonn gave the hometown fans a thrill by making a stunning charge on the second half of the course to pop into the lead ever so briefly. Maze, the current World Cup leader, however, ran next and snatched the hot seat from the American.

Vonn did end America’s medal drought on home snow during the World Championships. The last American to medal at the Championships was Tamara McKenney with bronze in the slalom on Feb. 7, 1989, in Vail. (Her combined gold came on Feb. 2, 1989.) This is Vonn’s sixth medal at Worlds, and her first since a devastating knee injuring during the Championships-opening super-G in Schladming, Austria, in 2013.