Vonn ties mark with 36th World Cup downhill

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.

Yurkiw finished second at 1sec with Austrian Cornelia Huetter (+1.66) rounding out the podium in overcast conditions and on a quickly rutted piste that caused all manner of problems for the racers. The American also extended her own record for most overall World Cup wins with 72.

With her 36th victory in the discipline, the American matched the record set by Moser-Proell in January 1980.

In 2012, Vonn won the latest of her four overall titles and came just 20 points short of breaking the then record for the highest World Cup points total in a single season.

Ankeny, who won the 2007 Alpine individual title while skiing for Blake, made his World Cup debut in 2011 but broke through Sunday after topping the overall and slalom standings on the second-tier Nor-Am Cup circuit previous year.

“I was still a bit exhausted from the jet leg this morning but I was relaxed at the start and had a good run”, said Vonn, who returned to Europe two days ago after spending a week with family and friends in the United States. “Hopefully, I can just continue on in this direction, keep the momentum going and hopefully, keep winning”. “I went home and I felt much better.

Vonn leads the discipline standings with 300 points after getting her third victory of the season.

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.

“I’ve always had the speed and in training I’m as fast as anyone”, said Ankeny, who turns 25 when racing next Sunday at nearby Wengen.

“I think it was pretty solid”.

It was that bottom section where Vonn ultimately won the race.

“She is so kind”, Vonn told the CBC, “I am so glad she’s here today as she couldn’t be in Cortina previous year. It’s nice to challenge yourself and there’s definitely a lot more pressure when you’re leading the first run”.

So, Vonn now has amassed around 14,000 career World Cup points before Ankeny scored with 10.