Dominant Vonn eyes Olympic glory

Eurosport - Sat, 14 Mar 18:54:00 2009

American Lindsey Vonn has turned her sights on next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver after being crowned World Cup winner.

ALPINE SKIING 2009 Lindsey Vonn Aare - 0

Vonn arrived in Are on the back of a speed clean sweep in the World Ski Championships in Val d'Isere in February and the disappointment of seeing the chance of furthering her podium finishes there dissipate when she sliced a thumb tendon on a bottle of champagne.

But having already wrapped up the World Cup downhill crystal globe, she then claimed victory in the Super-G for that discipline's globe and in midweek retained the women's overall World Cup title.

The 24-year-old Minnesota-born racer has now notched up 22 World Cup victories, including nine this season, and admitted that it had been "a great season".

"I'm really happy about everything that I did. You know, I made progress in a lot of areas," she said.

Vonn finished the overall World Cup standings streets ahead of her rivals on 1788 points, with Germany's Maria Riesch in second on 1359 points and Sweden's Anja Paerson in third on 1035.

She maintained her dominance in downhill but also made big strides in slalom, Super-G and even giant slalom.

"Now I'm just looking to next year to see how hard I have to work to defend all these titles and hopefully I can continue to make progress in all disciplines," Vonn added.

The Colorado-based skier said her thoughts were already also on the Vancouver Winter Games.

"I'm really, really hoping that this Olympics goes much better," she said in reference to her disastrous, albeit brave, showing in Turin 2006.

While training for the downhill in San Sicario, Vonn crashed and was evacuated by helicopter to Turin, where she was hospitalised overnight.

But she returned to compete the following day despite a bruised hip and finished eighth.

"I'm going to work really hard this summer and really try as hard as I can to be strong for the Olympics," Vonn said.

"I've dreamed about winning an Olympic medal since I was a little kid so it's for sure one of the most important races of my career and of my life so I'll definitely be ready. I don't know how it could get much better than this season."

AFP

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