Lindsey Vonn broke the U.S. career downhill record set by Picabo Street.
Vonn won the downhill World Cup race in 1 minute, 23.57 seconds Saturday, capturing her 10th career World Cup downhill and passing her mentor Street and Daron Rahlves.
“Every time you win it is special. Today, I’m really honored,” said the 23-year-old Vonn, who already won the downhill crown this season. “Picabo has been really behind me my whole career. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk to her, if not now then after the finals.”
Renate Goetschl of Austria was second in 1:24.18 and Nadia Fanchini of Italy was third in 1:24.21.
Vonn picked up her fifth downhill win of the season.
American Julia Mancuso was fourth, missing a top-three finish by 0.03 seconds.
Vonn skied without errors on a day when many of her rivals had trouble with a jump two-thirds of the down the 1.4-mile Crans-Montana slope, which was shortened because of poor visibility near the top.
“It was good run, solid. I’m really, really excited to have won again,” Vonn said. “It was just a little bit bumpy. I was just trying to stay on line. On the bottom section, I missed the gate in training yesterday, so we really focused on that in the inspection.”
Vonn extended her overall World Cup lead to 150 points with 1,203. Austria’s Nicole Hosp, who finished 27th, is second overall.
Hosp is expected to make up ground in the super-combined race on Sunday. It features a downhill and a slalom _ Vonn’s least-favorite discipline.
“I still have lot of fighting to do and tomorrow’s going to be a challenge. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, that’s for sure” she said.
Mancuso set aside her troubles in training and almost made it an American 1-2 finish.
“I was a little nervous after yesterday,” she said. “I did make a mistake and that cost me second place.”
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