Vonn "pedals" her way into the record books with her twelfth victory on Olympia

The American reclaims her crown, while Goggia makes an error at the Schuss and the public holds its breath. The athlete from Bergamo is unharmed.

Weirather and the young Wiles also on the podium.

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Date:	20/01/2018 from 1500
Place:	Cortina d'Ampezzo

Lindsey Vonn reclaimed the Olympia delle Tofane crown, making it look as easy as a “bike ride“, and was crowned "Queen of speed” for the twelfth time in her career in Cortina. Her improvised “ride” on an electric bike has already gone viral on social networks around the world, showing the American champion pedalling around the finish area immediately after receiving her prize from the Fondazione Cortina 2021.

Photographers and reporters went wild as they followed the American champion who triumphed today with a clear margin over the second place, Tina Weirather, 92 hundredths behind her, and the third, her young team mate Jacqueline Wiles who celebrated the second podium of her career, finishing 98 hundredths behind her captain. Today’s win gave Vonn her twentieth podium on Olympia and made her the oldest athlete to win a World Cup downhill (aged 33 and 95 days), beating Elisabeth Goergl who was 32 and 325 days.

This victory also evened out the score with Sofia Goggia, who won yesterday but ended up outside the track today due to an error at the Schuss which threw her off balance and had the public, who had turned up to cheer the Bergamo champion on, holding its breath. Sofia amazingly managed to stay upright and did not fall, helped by her air bag which opened when it “felt” the Italian was about to go down.

The best result of the Italian athletes went to Johanna Schnarf with her ninth place, finishing 1"81 behind the winner, followed by the young Nicol Delago 17th, and Nadia Fanchini 18th.

Once again Cortina is celebrating Vonn and is looking forward to Sunday’s Super G challenge that will conclude the competition in Cortina. Will Vonn triumph again? Will Goggia make a comeback? Or will there be a third queen? Everything will be revealed on Olympia delle Tofane from 11.45 am.

This is what the top athletes had to say:

Lindsey Vonn: “I’m thrilled to win at Cortina again, especially after yesterday’s race when I made a huge error. Everything was perfect today: the sky, the course, I thought I had skied well and I nailed it. I’m feeling very confident for the Super G. I’ve already won in the discipline this year and I’m going to try and do it again on Olympia. I’m going to be aggressive from the get-go".

Sofia Goggia: “I’m so disappointed when I think of the almost gratuitous risk I took. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself. I didn’t expect to be in the air for so long and leaning so far backwards. I threw away a chance but today I made an error of judgement and I need to learn from that. My direction was fine as I went into the jump but then I lost my alignment. You’re going 100 km/h in that section and it was scary. My air bag opened and it kind of gave me a push".

Johanna Schnarf: “Today I skied exactly as I wanted to. The snow was very aggressive, but I’m satisfied with how I tackled the course. I’m less satisfied with the result though. I really enjoyed this downhill, maybe a bit too much".

 

Results DH here!