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Better Day for Vonn and U.S. Team

By U.S. Ski & Snowboard
December, 7 2013

LAKE LOUISE, AB (Dec. 7) – The U.S. Ski Team women showed a bit of improvement Saturday with Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) finishing 11th in her second downhill race since her season-ending injury this past February at World Championships. The U.S. speed team women posted three top-20 results in the second of two downhill runs at Lake Louise. Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch went two-for-two in this weekend’s downhills, a feat accomplished by Vonn just twelve months ago. Sunday the women race super G, giving the U.S. speed team women one chance at redemption. The race airs live on Universal Sports Network at 1 p.m. EST.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The U.S. Ski Team women showed a bit of improvement Saturday with three top-20 results in the second of two downhill runs at Lake Louise.
  • Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) skied with much more confidence, finishing 11th in her second downhill race since her season-ending injury this past February at World Championships.
  • The U.S. women’s results were better than Friday’s race but still far off of the tremendous momentum gained last season.
  • Team veteran Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) also moved up from yesterday, finishing just behind Vonn in 12th. Last year in Lake Louise, Cook nabbed two second-place finishes.
  • Leanne Smith (North Conway, NH) and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) finished 17th and 21st respectively and rookie Jackie Wiles (Aurora, OR) finished just outside the points in 31st
  • Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch went two-for-two in this weekend’s downhill races, a feat accomplished by Vonn just twelve months ago.
  • Sunday the women race super G, giving the Best in the World U.S. women’s speed team one more chance at redemption.
  • The race airs live on Universal Sports Network at 1 p.m. EST.

QUOTES
Lindsey Vonn
I definitely did a much better job today. I was much more confident and I went out and I attacked. It’s a great step and I was much more aggressive today, much more self-confident. I still made a couple mistakes, but in general I’m really with the race today and it gives me a lot more confidence going into tomorrow.

My goal is definitely still to be as prepared as possible for Sochi so I’m going to look again at the schedule after this weekend. I don’t know if that means I’ll race some races or no races or all of the races. I really don’t know what that means yet. My focus is Sochi and however I can come into those Olympics the most prepared is what I’m going to do.

I’m optimistic. I learned that from my mom. The glass is half full and I was dealt a really bad hand and I’m going to play my cards to the best of my ability. It’s like chess. You have to map out your strategy and I’m going to take this season like a chess game. I’m going to play my cards the best that I can and hopefully I’ll be in a check-mate position when it comes to the Olympics.

Stacey Cook
I think maturity helps. I had a bad day yesterday and not a great weekend last weekend. I think the maturity really helps me just put days behind me and know what makes me fast and keep bringing it day to day.

I took a lot of the same approach as yesterday, I just tried to get that really forward position and really attack the course. I was doing that yesterday too, but it just didn’t come through. Today it came through a little better.

Julia Mancuso
It’s a lot faster and it’s really smooth. It feels good today. I thought my time would be faster again, but that’s okay the skiing is good and I’m sure it will come.

I think the humidity is really what got us yesterday, having the snow guns on. So today with it being clear and sunny, it’s not as much of an issue.

Sometimes, in speed especially, it’s about finding the line and being perfect on your edges. It’s definitely one of those things that can come just as quickly as it goes. So as a team I think everyone’s headed in the right spot. So yeah, the magic just hasn’t happened yet. We’ll see when they come down today; hopefully things turn around for the rest of my teammates.

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