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Breakout star Lauren Macuga and comeback queen Lindsey Vonn made it a classic Sunday for the United States ski team.
Macuga’s first World Cup race win — in a super-G where the 40-year-old Vonn impressed again in fourth — was no surprise to ski watchers who saw the 22-year-old American’s fast-improving results.
Maybe now sponsors will catch up with a racer from what shapes to soon be the first family of the extended US ski team.
Macuga raced with speed and style Sunday wearing a helmet that has a question mark on the front where a sponsor’s brand could be.
The American was almost flawless on a course that caught out veterans like Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami, who made errors and knew crossing the finish line their times would not hold up.
Macuga won by 0.68 seconds — a huge winning margin in super-G — ahead of Stephanie Venier of Austria, with Brignone 0.92 back in third. Olympic champion Gut-Behrami was 1.26 back in fifth.
“I can’t believe it, it’s so exciting,” Macuga said. “I don’t even think the nerves have settled in. I’m just waiting for it to hit me.”
Vonn, in the third race of her surprise comeback season, trailed Macuga by 1.24 yet no one was faster down the steep middle section of the course.
“It was a crazy run today,” Vonn said. “I’m also really proud of my teammate Lauren. It’s really nice to be part of such a fun team. It’s great to see another American on top of the podium.”
Macuga stood course-side punching the air to salute her storied teammate’s run. Vonn smiled broadly and held her arms out wide as the racecourse commentator praised her “unbelievable” run.
A half-hour earlier, Macuga had crossed the line and seeing her race-leading time put her right hand to her open mouth, waved both arms in the air and shrieked “Oh my God!”
Macuga was installed in the leader’s box, wearing a bucket hat with stars and stripes, to watch Vonn start wearing the No. 31 bib, one day after an impressive sixth-place finish in downhill. Macuga had been ninth Saturday.
Vonn had skied at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics in Macuga’s home state Utah five months before the US team’s new star was even born — on the fourth of July.
Macuga is in her third full season on the World Cup tour and had six top-10 finishes before Sunday, including fourth in a downhill last month at Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“I know that I had the potential to ski on the podium,” she said. “I knew it was there, I didn’t think it would be today.”
Her sisters also are on US teams: Sam Macuga is a ski jumper and Alli Macuga skis moguls on the freestyle team.
The debut World Cup win came in Lauren Macuga’s 30th start while Sunday was Vonn’s 396th on the circuit, a career that began in a November 2000 slalom at Park City — Macuga’s home town.
The pair posed for Polaroid photos together in the finish area, where Vonn chatted with former US downhill racer Travis Ganong and Italian star Sofia Goggia, who for the second straight day skied out when set to post the fastest time.
Vonn’s performance Sunday was further away from the winning time than Saturday in her first downhill for six years, won by Brignone, yet was perhaps more impressive.
On Sunday, Vonn was genuinely fast through an unfamiliar gate-setting and in much poorer visibility on a cloudy day than the sun-splashed downhill raced on a course that is well-known and where she had won in 2007.
“It was really bumpy, the light was really flat when I went,” said Vonn, who returned from a six-year retirement and is now skiing with a titanium knee. “I think it was a really good step forwards. (Saturday) gave me a lot of confidence.”
The shocking star of Saturday, Swiss prospect Malorie Blanc who was runner-up on her World Cup downhill debut, confirmed that form in super-G with a ninth-place finish.
It is proving to be a rich and intriguing season in the women’s World Cup that now moves on to its signature venue — scenic Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Dolomites that will host women’s races at the 2026 Olympics.
Three generations of women’s speed racers, from 21-year-old Blanc to 40-year-old Vonn, and first-time winner Macuga, are challenging established stars like 2018 Olympic downhill champion Goggia, Gut-Behrami and Brignone, who now leads the overall World Cup standings. A downhill is scheduled Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.
“I hope I can put everything together there,” said Vonn, who achieved 12 of her 82 career World Cup wins at Cortina.
AP
