Alexandra Meissnitzer earned her 14th career World Cup victory and led an Austrian podium sweep Sunday in the season's first super-giant slalom race, wrapping up a chilly weekend of competition at Lake Louise.
Meissnitzer, third in Friday's downhill, won in 1 minute, 21.73 second. Andrea Fischbacher was one-tenth of a second back at 1:21.83. Michaela Dorfmeister, in her final race on a hill where she enjoyed great success, was third at 1:22.56.
The Austrian trio is a mix of veteran experience and rising talent. Meissnitzer and Dorfmeister are 32. Fischbacher, the super-G junior world champion in 2004, is 20 and in her second World Cup season. Her previous best World Cup finish was eighth in the super-G at Cortina last season.
PHOTO: AP
"We are now probably the older ones," Meissnitzer said, "but we are still able to ski fast."
Meissnitzer won at Lake Louise in 1999, but the next year, when she returned, she sustained a serious knee injury, the first of a series of problems that plagued her for the next three years.
"Maybe that's why this victory is pretty emotional for me," Meissnitzer said. "There was a whole where I didn't know if I could continue skiing. Winning here again is something special."
PHOTO: AP
Despite temperatures around minus 14?C on a mostly sunny, Meissnitzer called Lake Louise "one of the most beautiful places" on the World Cup circuit
Dorfmeister, who is retiring after this season, finished in the top three in all three races at Lake Louise. In her career, she had seven top-three finishes at Lake Louise, including a victory in the super-G last year.
Fischbacher, the world junior super-G champion in 2004, is 20 and in her second World Cup season. Her previous best finish was eighth in the super-G at Cortina last season.
PHOTO: AFP
"I am very proud and very happy to be on the podium next to big champions like Michaela and Alexandra," a nervous Fischbacher said through an interpreter. "It was an exciting moment, and I am looking forward to trying to imitate them and equal them maybe in the future."
Fischbacher is just one of many talented young skiers who are challenging the veterans on the women's circuit.
Italy's Elena Fanchini, winner of Friday's downhill, is 20. Lindsey Kildow of the US, the downhill victor on Saturday, is 21.
Kildow finished sixth Sunday in 1:23.09, three hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Kirsten Clark.
The skiers head to Aspen, Colorado, next week for the only US stop on the women's World Cup circuit. The schedule has a super-G on Friday, giant slalom on Saturday and slalom on Sunday.
Giorgio Rocca of Italy skied a clean second run in icy and snowy conditions to win the World Cup season's first slalom, and Ted Ligety of the US finished a career-best third.
Rocca, one of the host country's top medal hopes in Alpine skiing at the Turin Olympics in February, completed two runs on the Birds of Prey course in an unofficial time of 1 minute, 51.72 seconds.
But his victory wasn't secure until first-run leader Benjamin Raich of Austria, the slalom world champion, skied off course late in the second run. Raich was ahead of Rocca's pace at the first time interval.
"Beni was fast in the second run, but the race finishes at the finish line," Rocca said.
Stephane Tissot of France, 20th after the first opening, had the fastest second run and finished second in 1:52.58.
The 21-year-old Ligety, who crashed in the first run of Saturday's giant slalom, had never finished better than eighth in a World Cup race before Sunday. He was 12th in the first run but third-fastest in the second and wound up with a combined time of 1:52.60.
That was good enough for a spot on the podium because five of the 11 skiers who followed him in the second run failed to finish.
"I kept looking up, and I kept seeing my name in second place," Ligety said, a bronze medal hanging around his neck. "Just a lot of luck."
He was 15th in last year's Beaver Creek slalom, a result that gave him increased confidence.
"I always aim pretty high," Ligety said. "I'm not entirely surprised" with his performance Sunday.
Reigning overall World Cup champion Bode Miller didn't qualify for the second run. Eight of the first 20 skiers, and 28 of 74, failed to finish the opening run, including 2002 Olympic slalom gold medalist Jean-Pierre Vidal.
With the temperature dropping to minus 18?C, snow falling and wind swirling, visibility and traction were even poorer in the second run.
"There was a strong gust of wind that suddenly blew into me and I lost my line," Raich said.
"The snow was blowing so hard. It's disappointing, because apart from that, everything was going well. I was on my way to the victory."
He won gold in the combined and the slalom at the 2005 World Championships, and added a silver in the giant slalom and a bronze in the super-G. He also was the World Cup slalom and giant slalom champion, and finished second to Miller in the 2004-2005 overall standings.
Miller missed a gate about 20 seconds into his opening run, then hiked back up to where he went off-course and completed the run for practice.
"It's just bad balance, more than anything," Miller said.
"But the combinations are incredibly close today. They're really quick, which normally is good for me, but today I wasn't feeling very quick on my feet."
The men's circuit returns to Europe next weekend for a series of races in Val d'Isere, France.
Hannu Manninen of Finland edged Todd Lodwick of the US by four-tenths of a second to win a World Cup Nordic combined sprint event.
Manninen covered the 7.5km on Lillehammer's Olympic trails in 19 minutes, 47.5 seconds. In a crowded sprint, Ronny Ackermann of Germany was third, 0.8 behind.
Ackermann said he was blocked on purpose by Manninen when he tried to pass on an uphill stretch just before the final straightaway.
The German was upset and tried to hit Manninen with his ski pole after crossing the finish line. He later refused to shake hand with the Finn at the prize awarding ceremony.
It was Lodwick's best finish of the season. The win -- the 34th career on the World Cup circuit -- capped a perfect weekend for Manninen at Lillehammer. He won another event Saturday.
The Finn has won three of the four events so far this season.
Manninen, the defending overall champion, extended his lead in the standings to 350 points. Austria's Felix Gottwald, who finished eighth, is second with 192 points, followed by Anssi Koivuranta of Finland (188) and Lodwick (183).
The meet was moved from to Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, from Trondheim in northern Norway because of poor snow conditions.
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