Lindsey Vonn takes Downhill and Super-Combined victories in St. Anton

On what many consider the toughest course on the tour this year, Lindsey Vonn won the Downhill on Friday and followed that with a victory in the super-combined event on Saturday - giving her 3 victories this year and the overall World Cup lead!

According to many experts on the alpine skiing World Cup, this year’s downhill race in St.Anton was the toughest womens event ever held. Technical skill was as necessary as power, endurance and a fearless attitude towards the steep and icy slope.

American star Lindsey Vonn proved to fulfil all those criteria, skiing like there was no tomorrow. She won with a margin of .36 seconds ahead of Kelly Vanderbeek (CAN) and Julia Mancuso (USA), after she was behind a half second after making a big mistake in the upper part of the course. But despite of the mistake, Lindsey didn’t give up and showed what it means to fight. Knowing the lower part of the course from training runs and from the slope inspection with Robert Trenkwalder this autumn, Lindsey knew that a lot of time could be won back at the bottom. And, that's just what she did.

In fact, since this victory was a declared a top goal for this season, Red Bull had already taken Lindsey for a special inspection of the slope this fall. The trip provided a customized video analysis about races and past traininggiving Lindsey the chance to familiarize the most important passages of the slope.

This was Lindsey’s second Dowhill victory in the fourth downhillrace of the season, making her the leader of the downhill World Cup point standings.

At the Super-combination the day after, Lindsey hit a perfect downhill run and just outclassed everyone. Her margin of 1.53 seconds gave her a valuable cushion for the very difficult Slalom event. It was enough to bring home her second victory this weekend, her first in this discipline and third total for the year.

Additinally, this was Lindsey’s tenth overall World Cup victory, surpassing the mark of Olympic champion Picabo Street and making Lindsey the most successful female ski racer in US history.

Two victories, 200 points and the jump to the overall lead of the World Cup standings all made the perfect Christmas present for Lindsey Vonn... even if she did give it to herself!