Lindsey Vonn won her second World Cup downhill of the weekend on Sunday in a perfect dress rehearsal for the Pyeongchang Olympics.
It was the American’s third straight triumph in the discipline after also winning in Cortina d’Ampezzo
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”Two wins is as good as it gets, really. It’s just been a perfect weekend,” said Vonn, who plans to compete in downhill, super-G and the combined event at the Olympics. ”It has really been the exact preparation that I was hoping for going into South Korea.”
In a similar scenario to Saturday’s race, Vonn beat Sofia Goggia for the win. The American clocked 1 minute, 37.92 seconds on the Kandahar course to beat her Italian rival by 0.11 seconds, after edging her by just 0.02 the day before. Goggia won two consecutive downhills in January but crashed in the race where Vonn started her winning streak.
Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was a hundredth of a second further behind in third.
Vonn’s American teammate Stacey Cook crashed and was taken off the hill on a sled ”as a precaution,” the U.S. ski team said, adding that Cook ”is OK.” Another teammate, Jacqueline Wiles, damaged her left knee in a crash Saturday and was ruled out of the Olympics.
Winning another Olympic medal – after taking downhill gold in 2010 but missing the 2014 Sochi Games because of a knee injury – has been Vonn’s declared goal all season.
But after Pyeongchang, her focus will shift back to a record in the sport that has long been regarded as unbeatable.
Vonn’s 81st World Cup win on Sunday left her just five short of the all-time best mark set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.
”You get a little greedy,” Vonn said. ”Once you keep winning, you want to win more. For sure, I will ski another season and see how high I can get the number. I know I can continue to win
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Vonn has recovered from a rough start to her season, which saw her crashing twice in one of her favorite resorts, Lake Louise, and dealing with back and knee problems.
”I have really picked up a lot of momentum,” she said after Sunday’s win. ”I feel really good physically, mentally. And everything is working well, my equipment is working well, my preparation is perfect. It really couldn’t be better going into the Olympics.”
Vonn trailed Weirather by 0.30 seconds halfway down the course but found the fastest line in the turning final section.
The American’s lead came under threat a few minutes later. Goggia was ahead by 0.04 at the second and 0.07 at the fourth split time, but failed to match Vonn’s pace on the bottom part of the hill.
Still, Goggia was still content after finishing her run.
”I am pretty happy to come away from Garmisch with two solid runs, two solid races, solid skiing,” the Italian said. ”This is what I was hoping for after the crash in Cortina.”
While the downhill rivalry between Vonn and Goggia has been shaping up nicely going into the Olympics, Weirather made it clear the competition isn’t far off.
”I am going to the Olympics with confidence,” said Weirather, daughter of the two-time Olympic gold medalist from 1980, Hanni Wenzel. ”The race today was important. I know that I am up there with the best.”
After winning 14 games
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The items on his to-do list are major issues, though.
Finding an offensive coordinator has become the top priority, following the departure of Pat Shurmur to become the head coach of the New York Giants. Then there’s the matter of working with general manager Rick Spielman to identify a starting quarterback for 2018, with contracts scheduled to expire for Case Keenum, Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater.
The offensive coordinator will be determined first and likely have some input into the quarterback quandary, too, but sorting out the age, ability, cost, durability and unrealized potential of Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater will be the more complicated and critical task.
Having been awake with angst until 3 a.m. following Minnesota’s 38-7 loss at Philadelphia in the NFC championship game on Sunday, Zimmer said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that he hasn’t pointed his mind down that path yet.
”My whole focus was on the now and not so much the future,” Zimmer said. ”Rick and I talked about that earlier. We said, `Let’s just go through the season. Let’s figure it out after the season.’ We’ll go through that process and go from there and see how that goes. We’re just going to work through it.”
Though Zimmer was staying true to the status report, he also didn’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of Keenum.
”I’m going to work through the process, just like I always do
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As for Bradford, whose knee injury yielded the position to Keenum, Zimmer said Bradford told him on Monday that he feels like he is past the trouble that limited him to two starts in 2017.
As for Bridgewater, who took Bradford’s spot on the active roster for the second half of the schedule only to be bumped back to third string and did-not-suit-up status for the playoffs, Zimmer said the Vikings naturally would have preferred to see a fuller picture of on-field action following his recovery from a major knee injury. Keenum’s success made that impossible for Bridgewater, who hasn’t appeared in a high-stakes situation in more than two years.
”For him to even get to that point to where he was and be able to come out and practice and compete, get in a game, was a true credit to him,” Zimmer said, adding: ”He’s at the point where he can play. You just have to figure out where’s he at, because obviously we didn’t get to see him through games.”
Not many teams in NFL history will have such a strong season to come within one win of the Super Bowl, only to have the sport’s most important position in such an uncertain state, but that’s where the Vikings find themselves.
”I guess it’s unique, but it’s part of the process in the NFL,” Zimmer said. ”You work through it, and you go about your business.”
As for the offensive coordinator vacancy
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The defense could not have been better in the regular season, ranking first in both fewest yards and points allowed, but it faltered over the final five quarters of the playoffs. Nick Foles and the Eagles torched this proud group for 456 total yards.
”I have to do a better job in some areas as far as maybe sticking to some things too much because we’re successful,” Zimmer said.
As for the Super Bowl that will be painfully played on the team’s home turf at U.S. Bank Stadium, Zimmer will not be in attendance, in case there was any question. He’ll be at his vacation ranch in northern Kentucky, inevitably cringing from time to time about coming so close to the franchise’s first championship.
”Our fans were unbelievable the way they helped this football team out. They talked about bringing the whole state together, the state of Minnesota and Vikings fans throughout the world,” Zimmer said. ”That made me feel good, that we were able to bring a bunch of people and try to work for something for a common goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish it for them, so that is one of the disappointments.”
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