U.S. skier Vonn prevails again

ST. ANTON AM ARLBERG, Austria — American skier Lindsey Vonn won't be able to fly home for Christmas because of the World Cup schedule. But the way things are going, why would she want to leave Europe?

Vonn won a super-combi Saturday for her second consecutive victory, sending her to the top of the overall standings. And for the second consecutive race, Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, Calif., finished third. Stacey Cook of Mammoth Mountain, Calif., finished 13th.

According to U.S. team officials, Vonn is the first American woman to win alpine World Cup races on back-to-back days since Tamara McKinney won a giant slalom and slalom March 10 and 11, 1984, in New Hampshire.

Vonn, who is from Vail, Colo., led after the downhill leg and finished with a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.28 seconds after the slalom. It was Vonn's third victory of the season and 10th overall. Seven of her World Cup victories have been in the downhill, including one on Friday.

After taking the downhill, Vonn laughed and said, "Well, I've got to back to the office tomorrow and do it all again,"

Vonn, 23, was known as Lindsey Kildow until she married fellow Olympian Thomas Vonn in September.

The next races are a slalom and giant slalom in Austria on Dec. 28 and 29. So for a third straight year, Vonn will spend Christmas with Maria Riesch at the German skier's home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

They can toast each other's success. Riesch was the runner-up Saturday, 0.63 seconds behind. Mancuso was another 0.02 back.

Seventeen skiers completed both disciplines on the bumpy and icy Karl Schranz course — super-combi specialists such as Anja Paerson, Nicole Hosp and defending World Cup champion Marlies Schild did not finish.

"With so many good racers out, I didn't have to take too many risks on my slalom run," Vonn said. "I decided to make it a smart race,"

Vonn missed Friday's slalom training because of a news conference and media interviews after winning the downhill.

"That annoyed me, of course," Vonn said. "But Stacey Cook told me about the course and that it was well prepared, so finally it meant no disadvantage to me."

Vonn overtook Hosp at the top of the overall standings and will attempt to become the first American woman to capture the overall title since McKinney in 1983.

"Sure, I remember Tamara well, she was a big star a long time ago. But it doesn't really matter to me right now, as it is much too early in the season," Vonn said.

"We've just had three weeks of downhill skiing and I am sure that Nicole Hosp will gain many points in the upcoming technical disciplines. So it's better for me to not think about that now."

Mancuso said she struggled with her equipment during the start of the season, but was happy to get two podium finishes in two days.

"We did a lot of testing with the new material and now I finally have skis that suit me perfectly," she said.

Vonn had a clear lead after the downhill leg.

"My race was better than yesterday's, as I had far less errors," said Vonn, who skied flawlessly in the first part of the race, where she made several mistakes Friday.

Vonn almost missed a gate after a long jump threw her off course, but she quickly found her line.

The bumpy lower part of the course troubled many skiers. Daniela Merighetti, Elisabeth Goergl and Simone Streng had full-speed crashes but seemingly avoided serious injuries.

Speedskater

Ohno is disqualified

KEARNS, Utah — Apolo Ohno of Seattle and Jordan Malone were disqualified for cross-tracking in the men's 500-meter final at the U.S. Senior Short Track Speedskating Championships.

The 25-year-old Ohno, who has won five Olympic medals, won the 1,500-meter final Friday and Malone placed second.

J.P. Kepka of St. Louis won the 500. Simon Cho of Laurel, Md., was second.

The competition ends today and www.usspeedskating.org is to have a link to a webcast.

Note

• Austria's Thomas Morgenstern became the first ski jumper to open a World Cup season with six consecutive victories, taking a large-hill event in Engelberg, Switzerland, to equal the record for most wins in a row.

The Olympic champion won with jumps of 132.5 and 133.0 meters for 260.4 points. Others with six Cup wins in a row are Finns Janne Ahonen and Matti Hautamaki.