U.S. Woman Prevails in Downhill : Skiing: Lindh wins last World Cup race before Olympics. In wake of Maier’s death, Austrian team does not compete.

In the last downhill race before the Lillehammer Winter Olympics and the first after the death of Austrian Ulrike Maier, America’s Hilary Lindh scored her first World Cup victory Wednesday at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Lindh, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, won with a time of 2 minutes 4.21 seconds, defeating Melanie Suchet of France by 0.01 seconds.

Lindh and others raced with the pall of Maier’s death hanging over the women’s World Cup circuit. Maier was killed Saturday after she crashed on the downhill course at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

In deference to Maier, who will be buried today, the Austrian women’s team did not compete in Wednesday’s race, which had been scheduled for Friday but was moved up to avoid a storm that is expected in the region later this week.

World Cup officials on Wednesday canceled a men’s downhill ski race on the same course where the Austrian star broke her neck.

“It was hard to put it out of your mind,” Lindh said of the Maier crash in a conference call from Sierra Nevada. “I view it as two different subjects: The Ulli accident was really freaky, we all know something like that can happen, but it doesn’t happen often. We were all definitely thinking about her; I’m especially thinking about her daughter who she left behind. But that’s separate from when you’re out there skiing.”

It was Lindh’s first victory in eight World Cup seasons and her second top-10 finish this season. She was fourth in a downhill at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 14.

Lindh, 24, of Juneau, Alaska, appears to have fully recovered from knee surgery that forced her to miss most of the 1992-93 season.

“I’ve had two good, solid results,” she said. “At the same time, I know the media will be a lot more interested to see how I’m doing; so will the people at home. Whatever happens, it will be worth it.”

It was another strong showing for the U.S. speed contingent. Krista Schmidinger finished eighth in the race, Megan Gerety 14th.