The Alpine Skiing World Cup continued on Saturday with downhill races. Men are racing in Kitzbühel, women in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Lindsey Vonn celebrates again in Cortina d'Ampezzo

While men are having the traditional Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel, women are at another traditional World Cup venue, Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy. The race weekend in Cortina started with a downhill race.

Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein has struggled in this season’s previous downhill races and, as a result, fallen out of the top-seven group of the start list. Starting the second-best group with the bib No. 8, one could expect her to beat the times of the lower-ranked previous starters.

It was a windy day in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Weirather got unlucky with the wind; when it was her time to start the run, she faced strong headwind on the top section of the course. At the second split, she was already 0.85 seconds behind the leading Johanna Schnarf. However, Weirather had a great finish and managed to beat the leading Italian by 0.05 seconds at the finish line. After Weirather’s run, the race was temporarily suspended due to the strong wind.

Before the top group starting from the bib No. 16, nobody was able to beat Weirather’s and Schnarf’s times. The skier from the second-best group who came closest to their times was Hungary’s Edit Miklós, losing just 0.07 seconds to Weirather.

The downhill World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the USA started the top group. Weirather’s bad luck with the wind and the great finish was visible in the split times; Vonn was leading by 1.33 seconds at the third split, yet Vonn's lead reduced to 1.01 seconds at the finish line.

Starting after Vonn, the overall World Cup leader Lara Gut of Switzerland couldn’t match Vonn’s pace. Gut went into second place, 0.67 seconds behind the overall title rival.

The Canadian Larisa Yurkiw, who was already third in Val d’Isère and second in Zauchensee this season, achieved a third consecutive downhill podium. She was already 0.83 seconds behind Vonn at the last split, yet a strong finish reduced the gap to 0.28 seconds to claim the second place.

The race was again suspended due to wind before Fabienne Suter finished the top group. The Swiss was sharing the downhill World Cup lead after Val d’Isère; however she missed the previous downhill race in Zauchensee due to a pulled hamstring. Now in Cortina, she was able to finish only in 18th place, 2.29 seconds from lead.

The later starters didn’t change the order on top. Lindsey Vonn won the downhill race, her eighth World Cup race win in Cortina. She has now alone the record of most World Cup downhill race wins at 37.

Vonn’s lead in the downhill World Cup is now 122 points to the second-placed Yurkiw, and 128 points to the third-placed Cornelia Hütter who finished 12th in Cortina.


The World Cup weekend in Cortina d'Ampezzo continues with a super-G on Sunday at 11:30 am local time (5:30 am Eastern time),

Fill wins in Kitzbühel; Svindal, Reichelt, Streitberger injured

Photo: Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images Europe

After the perfect sunny weather on Friday in Kitzbühel, Saturday's downhill wasn't blessed with similar good conditions. Snowfall and wind delayed the start by an hour, and the start had to be lowered to just above the Mausefalle jump, to prevent skiers getting airborne at the jump with dangerous wind.

The first skier on course, Otmar Striedinger of Austria had an unusual finish to his run. He stumbled just before the finish line, crossing the finish line while laying on the ground.

Starting after Striedinger, Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde set a time that remained unbeaten for a while.

The race was suspended when Austria's Georg Streitberger with the bib No. 7 lost balance after the Hausbergkante jump and crashed heavily, at a place where his countrymen Max Franz and Florian Scheiber had crashed on training runs. Streitberger injured his knee and had to be airlifted to hospital. He was diagnosed with a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee, ending his season.

The first man to go below Kilde's time was Switzerland's Carlo Janka with the bib No. 10, taking the lead by 0.57 seconds. The next man on the course after Janka, Steven Nyman of the USA, was already half of a second ahead of Janka in split times, yet fell at Oberhausberg and Janka remained in the lead, but only for a short time. The following man on the course, Beat Feuz beat his countryman's lead time by 0.28 seconds.

More great runs followed after Feuz; the Frenchman Johan Clarey went into third place, 0.43 seconds behind Feuz. Starting after Clarey was Peter Fill of Italy, already second in the Lake Louise downhill and third in Lake Louise super-G this season. Aiming for his second career victory, Fill claimed the lead from Feuz by 0.37 seconds.

Visibility was worsening when the race progressed. Starting with the bib No. 17, the 2014 winner Hannes Reichelt was already 0.50 seconds behind Fill when he lost balance at the same place as Streitberger and hit the fencing even harder. Fortunately Reichelt was able to stand up, yet had to be airlifted to hospital for a medical examination as a precaution. He was diagnosed with a severe bone bruise in his left knee, and is expected to miss the next two to three weeks.

The downhill and overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal was a big favorite for the race, despite pulling a hamstring in his right leg when crashing out of the alpine combined slalom in Friday afternoon. Starting with the bib No. 19, Svindal faced worsening visibility and slight snowfall. Aiming for his first downhill win in Kitzbühel, he was 0.24 seconds behind Fill at the Hausbergkante jump where he crashed at the same place where Streitberger and Reichelt previously did.

Svindal walked out from the fencing after the heavy crash and seemed to have survived with a cut above his nose and didn't have to be airlifted from the slope. However, he was diagnosed with a torn ACL in his right knee. The rehabilitation is expected to take 9-12 months, not only denying Svindal the chance to fight for this season's World Cup titles but possibly delaying his start for the next season.

Three men were remaining in the top group, Erik Guay, Kjetil Jansrud, and Adrien Théaux. Once the race continued, still in bad visibility, none of those could challenge the lead times. Guay's final position was 11th, last year's winner Jansrud's 14th, and Théaux's eighth.

The visibility was somewhat better after the top group had started and the Swiss Marc Gisin (bib No. 27) went into fifth place between Clarey and Kilde, 1.06 seconds from Fill. Another skier who could still finish inside the top 10 was the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr (bib no. 30), finishing in seventh place, 1.28 seconds from Fill.

The weather conditions forced the race to be finished after 30 starters, which was enough to declare the results official and award World Cup points. The Italian Peter Fill claimed his second career win, first in over seven years. The Swiss duo Beat Feuz and Carlo Janka completed the podium, in what was Feuz's second race weekend this season after suffering an Achilles injury during summer training.

With five downhill races remaining, Svindal's lead in the downhill World Cup is 145 points to second-placed Peter Fill and 198 points to third placed Guillermo Fayed (21st in Kitzbühel).  With 100 points available for a race win, it seems like Svindal doesn't have enough lead to remain at the top of the standings until the end of the season.


The Hahnenkamm race weekend finishes with the slalom on Sunday. The first run starts at 10:30 am local time (4:30 am Eastern time) and the second run at 1:30 pm local (7:30 am ET). A preview for the slalom can be found in this article.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Kalle Tyynelä
Motorsports and alpine skiing writer. Also interested in tennis and sports business.