Alpine skiing-Nicol Delago wins Tarvisio downhill as Vonn takes another podium

TARVISIO, Italy, Jan 17 : Italy's Nicol Delago won a foggy women's World Cup downhill on home snow in Tarvisio on Saturday as age-defying U.S. Alpine ski great Lindsey Vonn powered to her fifth podium in five races.

The victory, in a time of one minute and 46.28 seconds with bib number three, was the 30-year-old Val Gardena skier's first on the World Cup circuit and her first podium since she was third in Saalbach in March 2024.

Germany's Kira Weidle-Winkelmann was sixth out of the start hut and took second place, 0.20 slower than Delago. 

Vonn, racing to third from 11th, was a further 0.06 behind on a Di Prampero piste shrouded in thick fog on the middle section and hosting a World Cup race for the first time in 15 years.

Delago's younger sister Nadia, downhill bronze medallist at the 2022 Olympics, finished 10th with the pair embracing at the finish.

"I was so nervous this morning and I couldn't wait to go down to ski this slope. I really like this course," said Delago, who was also fastest in Friday's training.

Vonn, in astonishing form as she prepares for an Olympic comeback at next month's Milano Cortina Games at the age of 41, stretched her lead in the downhill standings to 144 points over Germany's Emma Aicher.

The American now has two wins, a second place and two thirds from the five downhills this season while Delago has six podiums from her entire career.

Vonn won a World Cup super-G in Tarvisio in 2011 but said she could not recall much about the mountain.

"Everyone said 'oh, it's a big advantage because you're the only one that's skied here'," she said. "It's not an advantage because I don't remember it. 

"But I do remember the fans and I do remember the atmosphere.

"The snow was really soft, it was really hard to see