Published>Sat, Mar 06 10 07:24 PM
American Lindsey Vonn added the downhill World Cup title to her Olympic gold when she won Saturday's speed event in Crans Montana.
Vonn, needing to finish ahead of Maria Riesch to secure the title for a third successive year, powered down the Nationale course to beat Italian Johanna Schnarf by a hundredth of a second and grab her sixth World Cup downhill win this season.
Swiss Marianne Abderhalden, who like Schnarf benefited from improved conditions, claimed a surprise third place, while Germany's Riesch dropped back to sixth.
Riesch, who won two golds at the Vancouver Olympics, will need some fantastic performances on home snow if she is to deny Vonn the overall title.
Vonn has a 197-point lead over Riesch at the top of the overall World Cup standings going into the finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen next week.
"It is a relief for me to win this title here," said Vonn. "There is still a lot to come up... However, I'll be going to the finals with a light heart."
Vonn had already secured the super-G World Cup title going into the Olympics, where she won a bronze in super-G as well as the downhill gold.
On Friday, she was assured of finishing top of the super-combined World Cup standings after the race was cancelled. The International Ski Federation must decide whether she will officially be crowned super-combined champion, as only two races have been completed all season.
Vonn completed Saturday's downhill in foggy conditions, as did Riesch who was in second until several outsiders finished ahead of her when the light became better.
"That's Alpine skiing: sometimes you need some luck," Vonn told reporters after finishing in a time of one minute 35.26 seconds. "The conditions were not the same for everyone."
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