Even though she didn’t manage to win another race during her rather emotional weekend of racing at La Thuile, in Italy, Lindsey Vonn still enjoyed another career highlight there clinching her twentieth crystal globe with a strong 2nd place in the second downhill race on Saturday before reaching her 126th podium in a World Cup event finishing 3rd on Sunday in the Super-G.
Her eighth World Cup title in downhill allows Lindsey to become the most successful speed specialist in the history of modern ski racing – ahead of Austrian ski greats Annemarie Moser-Proell or Renate Goetschl!
With eight victories in downhill World Cup standings, five in super-G and three in combined, Lindsey Vonn also passed the mark many years ago set by Sweden’s Skiing Legend Ingemar Stenmark who held the previous record of fifteen wins in giant slalom and slalom standings amassed between 1975 and 1984. She also grabbed four big globes in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2015 and Stenmark three of them from 1976 to 1978.
The champion from Vail left the Val d’Aosta resort with a lead of 23 points in the overall World Cup standings on her main rival, Switzerland Lara Gut, winner in Friday’s first downhill race. There are eleven competitions left in the calendar in the coming month.
“I’m really happy with the weekend. It could have been better, it could have been worse. I came away with my twentieth World Cup title, which I’m really proud of,” the American told the press after the Super-G race. “I think maybe at the beginning of the season, because I was winning so often, everyone thought it was real easy, and it’s really not easy. The conditions were tough today, soft snow. Yesterday, it was kind of hard for me to get my confidence back after crashing (in Friday’s downhill), but I still was able to fight through and get two podiums, and anytime you’re on the podium, you have to be really happy, and I am,” she added.
“Winning is really hard. I tried my best (this weekend) … and I didn’t win. That’s ski racing. It’s a really big fight to the end of the season. We’re almost at the point where you can feel that the (World Cup) finals are coming … and I like that last part of the season. I’m really looking forward to the last couple of races,” also commented the 2010 downhill Olympic champion who plans to travel to Stockholm for the city event scheduled for Tuesday evening.
With three more Super-G races scheduled until the end of the season, Lindsey Vonn leads the specialty standings with 420 points, 79 more than Lara Gut. Tina Weirather, the winner on Sunday, is in third place with 266 points.
As it has been the case end of January at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Lindsey was not ready to take all risks in Sunday’s Super-G on the difficult Franco Berthod course as the race conditions were pretty challenging because of the warm temperatures in the region that day.
“I just skied a little bit conservatively because of the softer snow in some sections and I think I was doing pretty well until the second to last jump,” Lindsey Vonn explained. “I didn’t give myself enough direction and I think I lost some good speed there. But all in all I think it was a really good weekend. I fought back from some adversities and didn’t pull myself out of the game mentally so that was a big victory for me.”
“Mistakes happen and you just got to move forward and today I was finally 100 percent focused on the skiing and I felt a lot better,” Vonn added. “I actually got some sleep last night. So now I’m just thinking about racing and that’s what I should be thinking about, because I have a lot of important races coming up.”
The nice and warm weather on Sunday attracted thousands of spectators along the course, many of them young children asking the athletes for autographs. They loudly cheered Lindsey Vonn at the finish line during the award ceremony and when she left the arrival area. “That was intense,” she commented. “Coming down from the finish was incredible. There were so many kids and I love that. I love the enthusiasm they have for the sport and it makes our job a lot more fun as well.”
The US superstar was obviously thrilled and also relieved with her strong back-to-back podium finishes following the rough and nerves breaking moments she dealt with on Friday following her unexpected crash in the first downhill race. After three intense months of racing crowned by nine wins in three specialties, Lindsey Vonn sometimes needs to fight hard with herself to remain totally concentrated and motivated when battling for victory in every competition she is entering.
“I made a mistake and everyone does that,” she told the media on Saturday after finding back most of her focus and determination after a short night. “I am human. I had a lot of emotions yesterday and I should have just done boxing with my trainer.”
“I’m always usually careful with what I do and say on the social media platforms and I just didn’t really think it through,” Vonn also explained. “I was a little bit too emotional. It was a good lesson for me. I just have to remember that I have a lot of people looking up to me and I can’t let my emotions get the best of me.”
After the city event at Stockholm, Lindsey will try to find back her winning form at Soldeu, in Andorra, where a Super-G and a combined event are planned over the weekend.
