Mancuso fights Austrian dominance

Julia Mancuso of the US poses for photographers with a group of Italian soldiers after winning the women's downhill race of the alpine skiing World Cup in Tarvisio, Italy, on Saturday. PHOTO: EPA

Julia Mancuso of the US is single-handedly taking on the mighty Austrian women as the Alpine ski World Cup races to an exciting finish.

The leaders -- three Austrians and Mancuso -- are within 29 points of one another in the overall standings entering the final two events.

Mancuso now shares the lead in the women's overall competition with Renate Goetschl, the most successful active skier on the women's circuit, who chalked up her 45th World Cup race win in Sunday's super-G in the Italian resort of Tarvisio, a new stop on the tour. Nicole Hosp is third with 1,183, and Marlies Schild is fourth with 1,170.

Three podium places in three days this weekend, including a downhill win on Saturday, have put Mancuso in a strong position to become the first US woman in 24 years to win the overall title.

Benjamin Raich's giant slalom win and slalom second place allowed him to shake up the men's World Cup. The Austrian seized the lead in the overall and giant slalom standings and set up a last-gasp battle with team mate Mario Matt for the slalom trophy.

Olympic giant slalom champion Mancuso, who was second in the super-combined and third in Sunday's super-G, should have the edge on her Austrian rivals.

Goetschl, who took the downhill World Cup with second place on Saturday and has already won the super-G trophy, is considering missing next weekend's giant slalom and slalom in Zwiesel, Germany, to allow her knees to recover from a training crash in Tarvisio.

Hosp, the Olympic slalom silver medalist, and Schild, who has already put her name on this season's slalom and super-combined trophies, are more at home in the technical events.

While Mancuso might struggle to score points in the two remaining slaloms, she will be looking for victories in the two speed events at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, from March 14.

The Austrian men went into their weekend in Kranjska Gora with no leader in any of the six cup categories.

Over the two days in Slovenia, Raich and Matt redressed the balance, helped by the bad fortune of two of their closest rivals.

Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, who led the overall standings before Saturday, fell in the first leg of Sunday's slalom as did Swede Jens Byggmark, the slalom World Cup leader.

Matt won the race, with Raich second, putting the two men 15 points apart at the top of the slalom standings with only one race to go.

Raich, whose win on Saturday put him just three points ahead of Svindal in the giant slalom standings, also took the overall lead.