World Ski Championships—Women's Downhill: Maze Shines, but Vonn Misses out
First and second in Tuesday's super-G, the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships women's downhill saw Anna Fenninger and Tina Maze swap places in an enthralling contest. The latter pipped the Austrian to gold by just minus-0.02 seconds, claiming her fourth victory in what is proving a great season for the Slovenian.
Home favourite and World Cup downhill leader Lindsey Vonn was unable to build on her bronze earlier this week. A disappointing run saw her finish fifth.
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The winner's story
Maze was level with Fenninger after the second intermediate. Four had come and gone since the latter had taken the lead, and it would have been no disgrace to have slipped away too.
Instead, the middle section of the 31-year-old's run moved her back ahead. She kept it up, quickly recovered from a late slant outside the line, and finished with a time of 1:45.89.
Maze's jubilant reactions were justified. The eighth World Championships medal of her increasingly storied career also meant she became the first Slovenian to win a downhill gold at the event, per the International Ski Federation's (FIS) website.
There have been hiccups along the way for the multi-time Olympic medalist and World Cup title winner. Following her brilliant 2013 season when she dominated in the latter and shone in the Schladming Worlds too, coaching changes in Maze's camp contributed to an underwhelming start to her season before things settled down for Sochi.
Maze's downhill and giant slalom successes in Russia firmly got her back on track. Her momentum has been reignited this year, and the possibility of where Maze might proceed from here excites further.
She leads the World Cup overall standings and is not out of reach in the individual disciplines either. The prospect of adding to her medal count in Beaver Creek is very real too.
Silver and bronze
"It’s a nice battle between Anna and I, it makes it fun for us," Maze said post-race, via the FIS website. "The course, even though it was warm was perfect, the snow was hard and it made it really nice to ski here today."
It was certainly fun for the rest of us too.
Super-G gold medalist Fenninger raced with the relaxed air of a woman who knew her World Championships were already a success. After 11 competitors had tried and failed to beat Nicole Schmidhofer's time of 1:46.92, her confident compatriot's minus-1.01 advantage suggested they might have been overhauled regardless.
The 25-year-old's initial reaction was more measured than three days prior, but after a couple of seconds she allowed herself to enjoy the moment more loudly. While it turned out to be silver not gold, the personal satisfaction over her effort made it almost as good.
"I’m really happy about my performance, it was a really good run," the Austrian confirmed, per the FIS. "It was emotional in the finish and then another emotion when Tina came down. It goes in circles, in the super-G we were reversed for gold and silver, but I am still happy with my silver."
Three down after Fenninger, Lara Gut's low-key acknowledgement of her own finishing time—which temporarily put her in second—was in recognition of those still to follow. In her mind a couple of mistakes had cost her gold and possibly a podium spot. The Swiss demands plenty of herself and was clearly disappointed.
In Sochi, Gut was more gutted than most would have been to secure an Olympic silver medal. The realisation of her achievement soon hit home, however, and you suspect the 23-year-old will eventually get some enjoyment out of her strong showing in America.
Host nation performances
Vonn was the last to go of the main favourites. The bar had been set high by Fenninger and then Maze, but two time checks down, she was in the lead.
Despite her clear determination, the American's run lost its way from there. She fought hard and regained a fraction, but the damage was done on a day where near-perfection was ultimately required.
Fifth place was decent enough by most standards and was certainly the pick of the U.S. team's results.
Julia Mancuso and Laurenne Ross finished 16th and 17th, respectively. Stacey Cook skied to the fastest time in Monday's downhill training but could only finish 19th.
Most disappointed
Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg notched her eighth top-10 finish in a speed event this season but will have hoped for better than 10th, plus-1.35 down. After an inconsistent opening couple of months, Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather had begun 2015 brightly but could only manage 11th. Her disappointment was clear at the finish line.
Marie Jay Marchand-Arvier (France) and Valerie Grenier (Canada) were the only two unable to finish on Friday.
Underdog tales
She was unable to match her downhill third in St. Moritz, but Edit Miklos' (Hungary) third top-20 finish of the season was decent. Further up, Schmidhofer's fourth was her best result of 2014-15 by some way.
Nadja Jnglin-Kamer (Switzerland) is not seen to often within reach of a podium place, but she followed up her fourth place at the 2013 Worlds downhill with an impressive seventh. Off the back of good work in St. Moritz too, the 28-year-old will hope a strong finish to the season is in the offing.
Next up
The men take on the downhill on Saturday. The women are back in action on Monday with the Alpine combined.
World Championships results and leaderboard information confirmed via the FIS.
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