American great Lindsey Vonn has proved her class at age 41 once again by storming to a second downhill season victory in Austria -- less than a month before the Olympics in Italy.
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Vonn was unstoppable on a shortened course in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on Saturday as she claimed an 84th career victory, 0.37 seconds ahead of Norway's Kajsa Vickhoff Lie and 0.48sec clear of American teammate Jacqueline Wiles.
Due to challenging weather conditions the race took place on a heavily shortened course, with Vonn's winning time just over one minute at 1 minute 6.24 seconds.
There was a lengthy interruption when Austrian Magdalena Egger crashed heavily into the safety nettings. She was able to get up again but unable to ski down on her own and eventually had to be taken away by helicopter.
Vonn came out of retirement last season and in this campaign has been on the podium in five of her six races, in all four downhills and one of the two super-G races.
That makes the 2010 downhill gold medallist and twice world champion a big contender for more Olympic silverware at the Milan-Cortina Games which open on February 6.
Vonn has said she will retire again after the Olympics but there is speculation she may complete the season to win World Cup discipline titles. She already has eight downhill trophies and five in super-G.
She earned 100 race points from her victory and now leads by 129 in the downhill standings from Emma Aicher, of Germany, who placed sixth.
"I knew what it was going to take to win today," said Vonn. "It was a sprint and I had to give it everything I had, definitely had to risk a little bit."
In the men's World Cup, overall leader, Swiss great Marco Odermatt, moved back to the top of the giant slalom standings with a convincing victory on home snow in Adelboden -- his fifth successive win at the Swiss resort.
Australian Associated Press
