Maier wins World Cup super-G
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Hermann Maier celebrates after winning Sunday's World Cup super-G skiing event in Lake Louise, Alberta. AP Photo |
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Associated Press - Published: December 1, 2008
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Hermann Maier of Austria won a super-G on Sunday for his 54th career World Cup win.
Maier, who last won a World Cup race in January 2006 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, won in 1 minute, 29.84 seconds.
"To win here is a great feeling," said Maier, whose training was hampered since September because of a disc problem in his lower back. "Today I risked. You can't win a race without risk."
John Kucera of Canada was second in 1:30.43, and Didier Cuche of Switzerland was third in 1:30.52.
Defending overall champion Bode Miller, who finished 16th in Saturday's downhill, lost a ski before the halfway mark and did not finish. Miller skied past the finish area without talking to reporters.
Kucera tried not to be in awe of Maier on the podium.
"It's weird when you look over and your childhood hero is standing next to you," said Kucera, who won the super-G here in 2006. "Next time I hope to beat him."
Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland finished eighth in the super-G but leads the overall standings with 156 points. Cuche is second with 140 points, and Jean-Baptiste Grange of France is third with 122, one more than Miller.
Maier won the last of his four overall titles in 2004, and the 35-year-old Austrian has overcome some spectacular crashes in his amazing career to race at the top level.
He followed up a terrifying crash at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where won two gold medals, by dominating the next four World Cup seasons. But he missed the 2002 Salt Lake City Games while recovering from a motorcycle accident that nearly cost him a leg.
Maier returned to the circuit and won a super-G and a downhill just before the Turin Games, where he then won a silver medal in the super-G and bronze in the giant slalom.
Zahrobska gets first World Cup victory
ASPEN, Colo. — Sarka Zahrobska got her first World Cup victory Sunday, taking the slalom in a combined time of 1:39.32 to beat Austrian Nicole Hosp.
The Czech beat Hosp by .23 seconds in blustery, icy conditions. Tanja Poutianinen of Finland was third in 1:40.29. Zahrobska had three second-place finishes and two thirds in her 114 previous World Cup starts since 2002.
Lindsey Vonn was the top American, taking fourth in 1:40.73 in a solid followup to her slalom victory at Levi, Finland, earlier this month. Fellow American Julia Mancuso was disqualified after missing a gate near the end of the first run.
About halfway through the first run, winds gusting to 60 mph toppled a tower holding a finish-line banner, forcing about a 15-minute delay to allow race officials to put a marker back in place.
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