Aufdenblatten leads Swiss to 1-2 finish in super-G; Vonn places third to take overall lead

Aufdenblatten wins super-G, Vonn third

VAL D’ISERE, France — Franzi Aufdenblatten posted her first World Cup victory in leading a 1-2 Swiss finish in a super-G on Sunday, and Lindsey Vonn placed third to retake sole possession of the lead in the overall standings.

The 28-year-old Aufdenblatten upset the favorites to finish in 1 minute, 26.43 seconds on the Oreiller-Killy course, 0.23 seconds ahead of Nadia Styger. Aufdenblatten’s previous best World Cup result was the third place she twice took in downhills.

“Somebody told me that it happened after more than 200 races,” Aufdenblatten said of her winning drought. “It was the ultimate goal of my career. I really wanted to be the fastest one day.

“It’s a perfect day. I couldn’t dream of something better.”

Vonn was 0.26 seconds back in third to regain sole possession of the overall World Cup lead with 581 points, 50 more than friend and rival Maria Riesch of Germany. Kathrin Zettel of Austria is third with 384 points.

Following her victory in Friday’s super-combined, Vonn had been tied for the overall lead with Riesch, but the German finished 2.02 seconds behind Aufdenblatten on Sunday.

“It’s not looking too bad,” Vonn said of her overall lead. “It doesn’t really matter at this point. We still have a lot of races left, but I’m happy to have taken some points for the super-G standings.”

Vonn had lost the overall lead last weekend when she finished eighth in a slalom in Are, Sweden. The two-time overall World Cup champion also leads the super-G standings with 140 points ahead of Elisabeth Goergl of Austria and Styger.

Riesch had to start for a second time after Anja Paerson of Sweden crashed just before the German began her run. Paerson, a two-time world champion, finished in the safety net but escaped with minor abdominal pain.

The race was interrupted for about 15 minutes when Marie Marchand-Arvier of France fell heavily and was evacuated from the slope on a sleigh with suspected cranial trauma. The super-G silver medalist at the world championships was expected to undergo a scan later Sunday.

Vonn said she might have chosen the wrong skis.

“On the top, I missed the timing on a couple of gates. I just never really found my rhythm,” she said. “On the bottom, I thought I skied better, but I wasn’t myself … It wasn’t like I normally do it. Maybe it was a mistake to take the longer skis because the terrain it made it really tight.”

Vonn had dominated the two downhill training sessions in the French Alps resort, but her quest for a third consecutive downhill victory was put on hold Saturday when local organizers were forced to cancel the downhill because of bad weather.

“I was really disappointed about yesterday. I feel really comfortable on this course and obviously the downhill in the super-combined went really well,” Vonn said. “But no one can control that, it’s the weather. Hopefully we can make up the downhill at a later point, but you never know.”