83. Lindsey Vonn won the women’s World Cup downhill in St. Moritz on Friday in 1:29.63, 0.98 seconds ahead of Magdalena Egger. She is 41. No skier, male or female, has won a World Cup race at an older age.
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lindsey VonnUSA | USA | 1:29.63 |
| 2 | Magdalena EggerAUT | AUT | +0.98 |
| 3 | Mirjam PuchnerAUT | AUT | +1.16 |
| 4 | Sofia GoggiaITA | ITA | +1.31 |
| 5 | Emma AicherGER | GER | +1.41 |
Where it was won
Vonn did not lead at the top. She was fastest in each of the last three sectors, and that is where the race was decided. Vonn said the bumpier middle section was the key, and she carried big speed into the lower part of the course. Egger said Vonn made her time in the last sector. Conditions were close to perfect: good snow, blue sky, no wind.
A downhill is not won by being brave at the top. It is won by being clean through the rough middle so the skis are still running when the course flattens out. Vonn carried the most, by nearly a second.
Records
- Oldest World Cup winner. The previous men’s mark was Didier Cuche, 37, in the 2012 Crans-Montana super-G. The previous women’s mark belonged to Federica Brignone, six years younger than Vonn.
- 83rd World Cup win, 44th in downhill, and her sixth win in St. Moritz — the second of them a downhill.
- First win since Åre in March 2018: seven years, eight months and 29 days.
- 409th World Cup start.
- 139 podiums, third all-time behind Mikaela Shiffrin and Ingemar Stenmark.
The rest
Egger’s second place is her first World Cup podium. Puchner has her sixth downhill podium. Further back, Isabella Wright was 16th from bib 35, and Allison Mollin scored her first World Cup points from bib 53.
Last December, in her return to the World Cup, Vonn was 14th in a super-G here. In March she was second in the Sun Valley super-G. In the first downhill of this winter, she won.