VAL DI FASSA, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn finally lost her lead in theWorld Cup downhill standingsSaturday when Laura Pirovano won by the smallest margin of 0.01 seconds on back-to-back days.
APTOPIX Italy World Cup Alpine Skiing
Vonn was the standout downhill racer through January but herseason-ending crash at the Olympicslast month left her too few World Cup points in hand with four races left in her favored event.
Pirovano is now the surprise standings leader because of a stunning and career-defining weekend on home snow in the Dolomites.
The 28-year-old Italian had never finished on the podium in 124 career World Cup races — untilher win Friday.
Pirovano followed up Saturday by edging inside Cornelia Huetter's time. Minutes later, the2022 Olympics downhill championCorinne Suter raced into third, 0.05 outside Pirovano's time having led for most of her run and touched close to 133 kph (83 mph).
They pushed the early leaderBreezy Johnson, the Olympicand world champion in downhill, down to fourth, trailing Pirovano by 0.64.
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Pirovano's 100 race points lifted her atop the downhill standings, 36 ahead of Vonn who was pursuing a remarkable ninth career season-long downhill title at age 41. Emma Aicher is in second place with one race left, on March 21 at Kvitfjell, Norway.
Aicher placed outside the top 10 Saturday and was set to lose more points if lower-ranked late starters beat her time that trailed Pirovano by 1.06. She had been runner-up Friday.
That unexpected result for Aicher also was good for Mikaela Shiffrin, whose lead in theoverall World Cup standingshas been cut back because she no longer races in downhill.
Shiffrin's lead over Aicher in the overall standings is still more than 115 points ahead of a super-G scheduled Sunday that the United States star could start.
The women's World Cup season now has seven scheduled races left as Shiffrin chases a sixth career overall title, and her first for three years.
AP skiing:https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing