Mancuso Leads Strong USA Effort in Super G

CORTINA, Italy (Jan. 20) - Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) blasted through heavy snow to finish fifth and lead three U.S. Ski Team women into the top seven as Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg picked up the win. Leanne Smith (N. Conway, NH) was sixth and Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) seventh. Vonn remains second in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super G standings wth Mancuso third. It was the final speed event before next month's FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Schladming. The women's tour now heads to Maribor, Slovenia for a pair of technical races next weekend. Universal Sports Network will air the Cortina super G at 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. EST.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) was fifth to lead a succession of three U.S. Ski Team women into the top seven in the Cortina super G World Cup.
• Leanne Smith (N. Conway, NH) was sixth and Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) seventh. Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR) finished 14th.
• Vonn and Mancuso remained second and third in the Audi FIS World Cup super G standings.
• Mancuso survived a scare coming out of the start where she lost her pole and almost went out. She mastered challenging weather conditions with heavy, wet snow falling throughout the race.
• It was the final speed event before the upcoming FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Schladming, Austria.
• The women now head to Maribor for a weekend of technical races followed by the naming of the World Championship Team.

QUOTES
Julia Mancuso
It was really tough to be fast today with it snowing so hard. It was OK until the bottom and I had to wipe my goggles coming around the corner but I don't think it cost me much time.

Leanne Smith
It was a lot of fun today and yesterday. The snow came in pretty heavy this morning. There's lots of little piles throughout the course. It's one of those days where if you're at the right time and right place you're going to keep carrying your speed. If you get off line, forget it. You have to be aggressive. I'm pleased with my result - I let it all hang out. I wanted to get a good result here to solidify my changes to ski the super G at World Championships and I think I did that.

RESULTS
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