Vonn Fourth, Mangan 19th in Alpine Combined

Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) just missed the podium, finishing fourth in Friday’s FIS Ski World Cup alpine combined in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Wendy Holdener of Switzerland took the victory, followed by Italy’s Marta Bassino in second and Slovenia’s Ana Bucik in third.

Vonn won the first-run super-G and finished 18th in the second-run slalom. Tricia Mangan (Buffalo, N.Y.) finished 18th in the super-G, and 14th in the slalom to finish 19th overall, a career-best World Cup result for the 20-year-old.

“I think I skied pretty well,” Vonn said. “It’s good to get another run of super-G before the Olympics, and also for the slalom portion, its good for me to get some practice as well.”

Vonn spent the past few days testing equipment and training super-G and giant slalom in Folgaria, Italy with Andrew Weibrecht and Ted Ligety. Friday’s event served more as an Olympic tune-up to see how her body would respond to slalom, a discipline she hasn’t trained since last month.

“I’ve won slalom World Cups before, but I haven’t really trained (slalom) at all since Christmas … so that’s why I’m starting, so I can see how it feels for the Olympics and know how much I need to improve if I want to get a medal.

“If I can get a good advantage in the speed portion, and have a solid slalom run, I think I can be on the podium,” Vonn said of her Olympic alpine combined aspirations.

Friday’s alpine combined was a makeup race originally scheduled for St. Moritz, Switzerland.  Up next, the women compete in giant slalom Saturday and slalom Sunday in Lenzerheide. Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) sat out Friday’s alpine combined and is scheduled to start the giant slalom and slalom events.

RESULTS
Women’s alpine combined