Double Downhill And Super G Action For Women's World Cup In Lake Louise, Canada
Downhill #1 Went To Skier & Rider Ester Ledecka
As the World Cup season continues on, we see many athletes that compete over multiple disciplines, from both the Women and the Men. The interesting thing about Czech skier Ester Ledecka is that she has to pick which sport to participate in, having been the first athlete to win Olympic gold medals in alpine skiing and snowboarding.
The choice to race on two planks paid off this past weekend as Ledecka blasted past the competition to a first-place finish in the first of two Downhill races at Lake Louise. A final time of 1:31.87 set her up for a win of 0.35 of a second ahead of the second-place finisher.
"Going to wear the red bib it's freaky, and I hope to continue like that in the next races," says Ledecka "I've not decided yet if I'll race in St.Moritz or Cortina D'Ampezzo and I'll probably decide it the week before. This is what I usually do, and this drives my coaches crazy!"
The second-place spot belonged to Swiss skier Corinne Suter, which makes for her third World Cup career podium finish. Third-place went to Austrian Stephanie Venier, who was 0.45 behind the leader for this Downhill event. Now, there was also a joint 4th place finish between Venier's teammate Nina Ortlieb and German racer Viktoria Rebensburg, who would go on to take the victory in Super G just a couple of days later.
Downhill #2 Went To Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer, Mikaela Shiffrin In A Very Close Second
The Women returned to the top of the hill at Lake Louise on Saturday for another round of Downhill action, this time producing a much different podium than the day prior.
For Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria, Lake Louise has been a very kind venue. Though finishing in 7th place the day before, she was able to pull a very tight first-place on Saturday with a time of 1:49.92, making three Downhill victories at this hill in Alberta.
In the second-place position was the American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who came in behind Schmidhofer at just 0.13 of a second. Again, Shiffrin is another athlete to see continued success at Lake Louise, having won her first Downhill race here in 2017 and her first Super G in 2018.
Finishing out the podium was Italian Francesca Marsaglia. She was able to pull into the third-place position with a time that was 0.43 behind the leader. It can also be noted that spots four and five went to Ester Lecka and Corinne Suter, who finished in first and second the day before.
Viktoria Rebensburg Takes The Super G At Lake Louise
Viktoria Rebensburg not only took a joint fourth-place just two days prior but was able to pull out a Super G win on the final day of the race weekend at Lake Louise.
With a flat 1:20.00 time, Rebensburg was able to come out on top with a 0.35 of a second lead in the Super G. This marks the German racer's 18th World Cup victory, with this being the fourth in this discipline. She also became the first German woman to win two Super G races in a row since 1997, when Katja Seizinger won five in a row.
Nicol Delago from Italy was able to move from 31st all the way to the second-place position on the podium. This the second time the Italian has made a podium in her career, but also the first time in Super G.
Corinne Sutter continued to have a good weekend adding a third-place finish to the second-place finish she had two days earlier in Downhill.
Though Amerian Mikaela Shiffrin would only finish in 10th for the Super G race, it was still a very successful weekend. After this past weekend of events, Shiffrin is now 237-points ahead of the next closet racer, Viktoria Rebensburg, in the overall standings.
Thumbnail Credit: The Lake Louise Ski Resort & Summer Gondola/FB
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