Fanchini is queen of hill

Elena Fanchini of Italy celebrates with two Royal Canadian Mounted Police members after winning a World Cup downhill event at Lake Louise, Alberta, on Friday. PHOTO: EPA

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 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.

Miller 22nd in that race, and 18th in a super-G the next day, then failed to finish Thursday's super-G at Beaver Creek, blaming goggles that iced up and made it tough to see.

He began last season by winning four of the first five races and six of 10 en route to becoming the first American since 1983 to win the overall World Cup title. But he said on Friday he wasn't concerned by this season's much slower start.

The 32-year-old Rahlves has said this likely will be his final season of competition and his goals include filling an already impressive resume with two things he lacks: An Olympic medal and a World Cup discipline title. He's come quite close to the latter, finishing second in the downhill standings in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, second in the super-G in 2003-2004, and third in the super-G last season.

He was 32nd in the Lake Louise downhill, but was brilliant on Friday, at one point righting himself after tilting sideways.

As if winning a World Cup race wasn't enough motivation, particularly at the only US hill on the men's circuit, Rahlves said he also got a little extra pumped up when he heard Miller talking near the start about how he planned to "rip this hill apart."

"I'm not putting in all this effort to finish second over and over again to the same guy," said Rahlves, who was fifth in Thursday's super-G.

"Last year was tough -- always just kind of like a step behind Bode, every time."