Vonn’s downhill win last Saturday came with a small price. Dipping low in a bump, her knee smashed into her mouth; the 25-year-old finished the race bleeding from the lips.
Vonn’s performance gave the US women their 101st World Cup win, one more than the US men. It was also her fifth straight downhill win at Lake Louise.
At Beaver Creek, Colo., Bode Miller’s fourth-place finish on the Birds of Prey course put the world on notice that he will be competitive this season, according to US men’s coach Sasha Rearick. Considering that Miller ended last season semi-retired and didn’t train much over the summer, Rearick called Miller’s run “inspirational . . . just to see him charging like that was a good step forward.’’
But the only World Cup men’s races to be held in the US were dominated last weekend by a Swiss skier, Carlo Janka, who won three straight races, a feat nearly matched by Vonn, who, after winning two races at Lake Louise, finished second in super-G by three-100ths of a second.
Accident investigation
The International Federation of Skiing is looking into the rash of accidents that have sidelined at least three racers with season-ending injuries, with one perhaps career-ending.
“We are having one or two injuries every weekend,’’ said FIS tour director Guenther Hujara in a statement to captains of national teams meeting before a race last weekend at Beaver Creek.
US racer TJ Lanning and Canadian downhiller John Kucera both sustained season-ending injuries at Lake Louise two weeks ago. Last week, in a special downhill training run at Beaver Creek, French racer Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin had a high-speed crash on the Birds of Prey track in which he suffered torn ligaments in both knees, a broken arm, and numerous facial lacerations. Some French officials have expressed concern that Dalcin, 32, may be so badly hurt that his ski racing career is over.
Bloom backs out
Former football player and US Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom has decided to call it quits after trying to make the US moguls team for a third trip to the Olympics.
