8th win for Renate Goetschl

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 15th - Renate Goetschl won her third World Cup race in a row on Saturday in Cortina d'Ampezzo, breaking records as she cruised to her 18th downhill victory on the superb Olimpia Tofana course.
This new success win made the 29-year-old Austrian the third most successful women's World Cup skier alongside Katja Seizinger with 36 World Cup win and the first woman to win eight races at the same venue.
Austria's skiing legend Annemarie Moser-Proell won 62 events in the 1970's and Vreni Schneider 55 in the 1990's.
Goetschl, who won two Super-G races here on Wednesday and Friday, finished 29/100 of a second ahead of Croatia's Janica Kostelic while Lindsey Kildow of the U.S. was 3rd with a delay of 44/100.
Two other top-specialists came in 4th and 5th - Germany's Hilde Gerg and Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister. Sweden's Anja Paerson was a far and disappointed 29th - she was expecting more after finishing 3rd in the last training run on Thursday. She was a promising 2nd in Super-G in Friday.

Kostelic's first podium finish in a World Cup downhill race propelled her into the lead of the Overall World Cup standings with 739 points, ahead of Goetschl on 718. Both skiers passed Finland's technical specialist Tanja Poutiainen (706 points) who was not competing at Cortina. The defending Overall Champion Anja Paerson is now 4th with 661 points.

Goetschl was aggressive

The powerful display of speed and technique from a very determined and aggressive Goetschl put her back into the very open race for the Overall title after she came into the week of racing in the Dolomites without a win all season.

“I can't really explain this,” said the 2000 Overall World Cup Champion. “It is great to be winning again and I feel much emotion in me. I was doing things right before and working hard so I felt it would come. I know what it is like to work hard and not get the results but now I can relax and enjoy racing again. I just let my skis run down the slope.”
“Wednesday's win was crucial for me. Suddenly all the pieces were at the right place. I was attacking hard as usual but this time I made it! It is unbelievable to win three in a row here though,” she added.

“I don't know what it is about Cortina for me but everything just seems to come together. I love it here, the weather, the atmosphere, the slope -- it is all perfect for me,” said the Austrian who was particularly delighted to have equalled Seizinger's record.
“To be honest, it was a goal for me to reach Katja's record and I'm really happy to have done that. I didn't really expect it to happen so early and it is great - she was an awesome skier” she said.

On Sunday, Goetschl will try to become the first skier to win four races in the same place and the same week!

A delighted Kostelic

Kostelic, who is close to putting her knee injury problems behind her, was delighted with her performance and said that this 2nd place behind Goetschl was as good as a win. “On another slope maybe someone could beat her now, but not here. She is too fast for everyone and being the first behind her is like winning," said the Croatian, also a good friend of Renate.
“It's good to be on top of the Overall but I'm not really thinking about the title at the moment. I'm just taking it race by race and doing my best,” she added.

Despite another strong performance, Kildow has lost top spot in the downhill standings to Goetschl and was frustrated to have been beaten again after her second place in Friday's Super-G. “I skied very well today and it is good to be consistently on the podium but I am disappointed to lose the red bib to Renate. I've got to look ahead now and hope things go better on Sunday,” said the 20-year-old skier from Vail.

The women race a second downhill at Cortina on Sunday. Unlike Kostelic, the American believes she can end Goetschl's winning streak. “No-one is unbeatable and there is no such thing as a perfect run. There are always mistakes that can be made and it is matter of me putting my run together,” she said.

The previous record of wins at a World Cup venue was held by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell, who claimed seven victories at Pfronten in Germany in the 1970s, and Switzerland's Vreni Schneider, also a 7-time winner in Maribor, Slovenia.

Manuèle Lang