Lindsey Vonn edges closer to history with World Cup downhill win

Just four races back into her skiing career, Lindsey Vonn is on the verge of World Cup history.

After clinching a second straight win — and third consecutive podium — with a victory in Saturday’s downhill, the 30-year-old American now has the chance to secure a 62nd career win in Sunday’s super-G and move level with Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proll for all-time wins.

“I have to get there first. If it happens tomorrow, great,” said Vonn, a four-time World Cup champion. “I feel like I have been talking about (the record) for a long time now and, if I keep talking about it, I feel like it’s never going to happen.”

It would have been a distant dream one year ago, however, when she re-injured her troublesome right knee on the same Oreiller-Killy course in Val d’Isere and required surgery for the second time. The first knee operation came after she tore two ligaments following a spectacular fall at the world championships 10 months earlier.

Aside from one small wobble in the middle of the course, Vonn’s run on Saturday was clean and she finished .19 seconds clear of early pace-setter Elisabeth Goergl of Austria and Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, who tied for second.

“I trusted my body and my knee held up great,” Vonn said. “No problem, no pain, so all is good.”

Swiss skier Lara Gut placed 0.39 behind in fourth place, while overall leader Tina Maze of Slovenia finished half a second adrift in seventh.

After nearly two years without a victory, Vonn won a downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, two weeks ago and finished second in super-G the next day.

“It feels amazing. I was a bit nervous today as I made some mistakes in training. It’s tough when you only have one training run,” Vonn said. “I skied aggressively today. It was definitely tough as we had a lot more speed.”

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Olympic champion Kjetil Jansrud extended his overall World Cup lead by winning a super-G by a comfortable margin at Var Gardena, Italy, after narrowly missing victory a day earlier.

The Norwegian clocked 1 minute, 33.87 seconds down the Saslong course for the seventh win of his career and celebrated with a bow to the crowd.

Local favorite Dominik Paris of Italy finished second, 0.46 seconds behind, for his second top-three result in two days. Hannes Reichelt of Austria was third, 0.54 back, to reach the podium here for the first time in 12 years.

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Americans Elana Meyers Taylor and Charrelle Garrett won the World Cup women’s bobsled race at Calgary, Canada, for their second straight victory. Later in they day, Taylor and Canada’s Kaillie Humphries became the first women to race in a four-person event in World Cup bobsled history. Humphries’ sled finished 15th and Meyers Taylor’s 16th of the 17 finishers.