Lindsey Vonn sealed her third straight FIS World Cup overall title at the World Finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen this week, to go with her Downhill, Super-G and Super-Combined titles this season.
Despite coming in a rare second place to her biggest title challenger and great friend Maria Riesch in the final Downhill race midweek – Vonn had already claimed the title in the previous race in Switzerland – the FIS confirmed that Vonn would also claim the title from the truncated Super-Combined discipline to go with both the Downhill and Super-G crown, the latter won in January before Vonn even left for the Vancouver Olympics.
The 25-year-old American’s win in yesterday’s Super-G confirmed her overall world title and, to put the icing on her cake in Germany, was her 33rd in World Cups, meaning she also surpassed Bode Miller’s record of 32 individual World Cup wins for an American.
“It's so important to me. The overall title is one of the biggest things you can win in our sport,” said Vonn. “I always try to give my best every day, but it's a long season.”
'That's the way she is, always going for it, even when it doesn't really matter anymore' – Thomas Vonn
Vonn’s ‘long season’ has included a number of injuries, and this week was no exception, with a crash in Thursday’s giant slalom once again making her subsequent participation a painful one, though with Riesch looking unlikely to overhaul her in the overall World Cup standings even if she failed to compete in the Super-G, Vonn was determined to compete anyway, something her husband Thomas Vonn, who married the then-Miss Kildow in 2007, was keen to stress.
“She came back to me and said she felt OK and that she wanted to win that 33rd World Cup race and establish a new best US mark," the former US men’s skier commented. “That's the way she is, always going for it, even when it doesn't really matter anymore.”
But in a season that has garnered not only more FIS World Cup success, records and the long-awaited Olympic gold medal for Downhill, Vonn was as modest as ever about her achievements, giving credit to those around her.
“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if I'd have been able to do that, I would have said, 'Not likely,' Vonn added. “It takes a lot of hard work, not only by me, but from the team, from US Ski Team coaches, from my husband, from Red Bull and my ski company Head.”
For more results and a full list of rankings, go to fis-ski.com
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