Skiing: Vonn wins 73rd career title

American skier Lindsey Vonn won her record-tying 36th women’s World Cup downhill Saturday in Altenmarkt, Austria.

Vonn trailed Gut by 158 points coming into this weekend’s races but has reduced her deficit to 38.

With the win, Vonn moved from third to second place in this year’s standings for the World Cup overall title, the biggest prize in the sport this season with no World Championships or Olympics.

Vonn thereby equalled the record held for most downhill career titles set by Annemarie Moser-Proell, coincidentally, 36 years ago.

The American dominated the opening run in Austria, finding cleaner lines and more speed to finish almost a second clear of her nearest rival Larisa Yurkiw (+0.91secs). Organizers had to lower the start because of insufficient snow conditions in the upper part, shortening the course from its usual 3 kilometers to 1,875 meters.
”It was hard to stay relaxed”, Vonn said about her final run. But physically I am OK, ” Gut said. “Couldn’t be happier. I’m honored that the legendary A.M. Proell was there today”. “So I really try to ski as I can everyday then we’ll see in March what’s going to happen”.

Vonn has suffered no shortage of injuries over the course of her career, including a fractured ankle in August and a knee ailment that kept her out of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

“I skied a little bit more conservatively second run [with the large time advantage]”. The rest of the field had to make up at least 1.23 seconds on Vonn in the final run.

Vonn took the only previous super-G this season by a 1.32-second winning margin in Lake Louise, Alberta, last month, and is now unbeaten in the discipline for four races. She already held the record for most super-G victories with 25.

The women will next head to Flachau in Austria for two slalom races, on January 12 and 17 and a giant slalom on January 16.

Vonn attributed her renewed form to taking time off for the Christmas holidays.

Lindsey Vonn kisses the trophy after winning an alpine ski, women’s…