National Football League

Vonn makes it 5-for-5 in downhill

Published Jan. 23, 2010 1:52 p.m. ET

foxsports

Lindsey Vonn made it a perfect five wins in five World Cup downhills this season with another decisive victory on Saturday.

The American also tied Janica Kostelic with her 30th career victory, good for eighth place on the all-time list and nearly halfway to Austrian leader Annemarie Moser-Proell's 62 career wins.

"Just knowing that people have had that many wins makes it more inspiring," Vonn said. "You know that people have done it before and so it gives you hope that you can do it, too. It's good to know there's something to keep striving for."

Following her super-G victory Friday, Vonn sped down the Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 37.70 seconds. Maria Riesch of Germany finished second, 0.42 seconds behind, with Sweden's Anja Paerson and Swiss racer Nadja Kamer tied for third, 0.86 seconds back.

"It's very special for me to be on the podium with all these great skiers," said Kamer, who posted her first podium finish earlier this month when she placed second behind Vonn at a downhill in Haus im Ennstal.

Before the Vancouver Olympics open Feb. 12, only one more stop remains on the women's calendar -- in St. Moritz next week. If Vonn wins the downhill in the Swiss resort, she'll head to Canada on a six-race winning streak in the discipline -- seven if her victory in the final downhill of last season is included.

"Mentally and physically it's very grating, but hopefully I can just keep going the same way and continue like this," she said.

Vonn was the last top-ranked racer to start and was slightly slower than Riesch through the first two checkpoints, but the Minnesota native skied the bottom section of the twisting layout nearly half a second faster than her German rival and good friend.

"I was a little nervous in the start because Maria and Anja had such good runs and I really needed to execute," Vonn said. "So I was a little shaky the first couple of gates, but then I was able to ski really well on the bottom flats and I think that's where I won the race."

Vonn started celebrating even before she came to a stop. She now has eight wins overall this season, putting her within one victory of her personal mark of nine race wins a year ago.

In the overall standings, Vonn increased her lead over Riesch to 1,094-1,018. In downhill, Vonn has a perfect 500 points, with Riesch in second with 316 points.

For the fourth consecutive day, conditions were perfect with clear skies, sunshine and cold, hard snow.

Another American, Julia Mancuso, matched Vonn through the first checkpoint and was on course for her first podium finish in nearly two years through the final interval before losing nearly half a second on the bottom. Still, the Californian finished eighth for her best result of the season.

Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein, the daughter of former standouts Arti Weirather and Hanni Wenzel, fell midway through her run at high speed but eventually got up and walked away.

The weekend racing concludes with a giant slalom on Sunday.