Lindsey Vonn Ties Record For Downhill World Cup Wins

Lindsey Vonn, of the United States, is airborne as she speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Saturday, Jan 9, 2016.

Lindsey Vonn (C) of the US celebrates her victory next to second-placed Larisa Yurkiw (L) of Canad …

What unique circumstances for Vonn to reach that milestone in a two-run sprint downhill unlike most fans have ever seen.

Lindsey Vonn moved one step closer to claiming another piece of FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup history on Saturday as she equalled Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record of 36 downhill victories.

“Another race, another record!” She skied smooth and fast to almost a one-second lead in the first run. “Couldn’t be happier. I’m honored that the legendary A.M. Proell was there today”. She won in front of 6,200 awestricken spectators – proving she’ll continue her crusade as the winningest woman in World Cup history and tying Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria for most career downhill wins.

Vonn’s aggregate time of 2 minutes, 11.17 seconds in her first run gave her a one-second lead over Canadian Larisa Yurkiw of Canada. Cornelia Hütter finished in third place, 1.66 seconds from Vonn, while the first run’s third, Tina Weirather, ran out at the same place where Gut, Sejersted, and many other racers went out. Vonn, now 31, competed in that race as a 17-year-old and was the only skier on Saturday’s start list to have raced in a sprint downhill before. She is coming off a month-long break. In the overall standings, Vonn trails Gut by 158 points. And it was to her benefit in the hunt for the overall title that current points leader Lara Gut skied out in the opening run. It’s definitely more pressure in the second run when you’re leading.

Vonn leads the downhill standings by 50 points over Huetter.

Vonn owns records for 72 World Cup wins across all Alpine disciplines, including 25 super-G victories. It’s the first such format on the women’s World Cup circuit in 14 years.