Elena Fanchini of Italy won her first World Cup title by capturing the inaugural women's downhill of the season in 1 minute, 49.33 seconds on Friday.
"I am totally surprised," the 1.6m dynamo said through an interpreter. "I came on the World Cup tour this winter with the goal to learn and just to gain experience. I can't really explain how I'm here winning this race. It's really amazing."
Veterans. Michaela Dorfmeister was second at 1:49.43 and Alexandra Meissnitzer third at 1:49.60 with soft snowfall and the temperature at minus 17?C.
Dorfmeister, who has 21 World Cup victories and will retire after this season, has had great success at Lake Louise. This was her fourth second-place finish here, and she is the defending Lake Louise super-G champion.
A second downhill is scheduled on Saturday, with a super-G race on Sunday.
Fanchini, 20, burst onto the World Cup scene with a second-place finish in last year's world championships. After being sidelined for 20 months recovering from knee injuries, her only previous World Cup downhill was a 17th-place finish at Santa Caterina, Italy.
Fanchini wore the words ``Ciao Mama'' on the tape that the skiers used to cover their face to ward off frostbite. With the Winter Olympics in her home country in February, she said she welcomes the attention her triumph will bring back home.
"That's perfect you know because people don't speak enough about ski racing in Italy," Fanchini said. "We always talk about soccer. It's about time. With the Olympics coming up, it's great to start to talk about skiing."
Lucia Recchia of Italy was taken by helicopter off the mountain after a crash midway down the course. Recchia has a history of concussions, but only had a bloody nose and no major injuries, race officials said.
American Lindsey Kildow, whose lone World Cup victory came in the same race a year ago, was the leader through much of the competition, but she knew it wouldn't stay that way. She finished fifth.
"I made too many mistakes," she said, "but anything in the top five is good. There's another downhill tomorrow."
Kildow, who earned her 13th top-five finish, lost more than a half-second when she went sideways on a tricky, sharp turn three-quarters through the race.
Daron Rahlves edged Bode Miller in a World Cup downhill on Friday for a 1-2 American finish, reversing their order from last year on the same mountain.
This time, Rahlves covered the Birds of Prey course -- shortened because of wind and fog -- in 1 minute, 13.37 seconds. Two skiers later, Miller came down in 1:13.64, going through the top faster than his teammate before losing ground in the latter stages.
"On the bottom part, it was tight. Bode was scaring me at the bottom. He was skiing really well, too," Rahlves said. "That's good to see -- the two of us on the same team, challenging each other for the win."
In 2004, when Miller beat Rahlves by 0.16 seconds, it was the first time US men took the top two spots in a World Cup downhill. That was also the first time since 1984 that Americans went 1-2 in a top race since Phil Mahre won the slalom at the Sarajevo Olympics ahead of twin brother Steve.
"I can't feel too badly about this," Miller said. "Last year, Daron felt he'd put down a winning run, but I beat him."
Hans Grugger of Austria was third in 1:13.71, just ahead of teammate Fritz Strobl, who won the season-opening downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta, last weekend.
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