Janica Kostelic won a women's World Cup super-combi on Sunday, while Michaela Dorfmeister narrowly avoided a high-speed collision with a course worker.
Kostelic, who was in second place after the morning's downhill, delivered the fastest slalom to win the season's first of two super-combis in an aggregate time of 2 minutes, 15.74 seconds.
"During my downhill there was a lot of wind on top and the bottom I was not skiing real well," Kostelic said. "The slalom was really tricky but Anja [Paerson] did her mistake and lost lots of time and I guess I was lucky."
PHOTO: EPA
Paerson, the reigning overall World Cup champion, led after the downhill but settled for second after a mistake in the lower part of the slalom. She finished in 2:16.19.
"My goal was to win today so I'm not particularly satisfied," Paerson said. "I made a mistake in the slalom. I got my boot on the snow and touched down with my hand and butt, came up again but lost all the speed. I guess I should just be happy I made it down in second."
Lindsey Kildow of the United States was third in 2:17.48.
"I made a mistake at the bottom of the downhill," Kildow said. "I didn't think I had a chance to be on the podium after that.
"Slalom skiing is going really well so it made up for my downhill. I have a lot of confidence in my slalom. I trust my skis, trust myself and it's showing in my races. I skied aggressive in the slalom, taking chances and I was really fast so I'm happy about today," Kildow added.
Dorfmeister finished 17th after nearly crashing into a course worker who was holding a shovel in the downhill leg.
It was the second such incident in two days. In Saturday's downhill, Anne Marie Mueller of Norway nearly collided with an Italian trainer.
Dorfmeister was traveling at almost 80kph when she nearly ran into a course worker on her line. The experienced 32-year-old Austrian reacted quickly, lifting her right ski and swerving closer to the gate to avoid him.
"I had the right reaction," Dorfmeister said. "If I had another reaction maybe I would have crashed with him and someone would have died maybe."
Paerson covered her mouth with her hands as she watched Dorfmeister's run on the jumbo screen in the leader's box.
International Ski Federation rules allow skiers to rerun a race or leg if they are distracted by officials, jury members or course workers during their run, but they must stop immediately.
The course worker, or officials who instructed him, could potentially face sanctions.
"They are dealing with it," FIS general-secretary Sarah Lewis said. "It depends on the circumstance. They need to find out exactly what happened. It shows the importance of respecting instructions. This is the reason why access to the course is so limited and restricted -- because the risk is there."
Lewis said only Dorfmeister's quick reflexes prevented the kind of disaster that has happened before. In 2001, France's Regine Cavagnoud died from head injuries after slamming into German coach Markus Anwander during a training session on Austria's Pitztal glacier.
At the 1996 world championships, downhill racer Tatiana Lebedeva and an American ski official each broke legs in a collision.
Jean-Pierre Vidal gave his Olympic title defense a boost on Sunday after putting together two near-flawless runs to win a men's World Cup slalom -- his first victory in five years.
The Frenchman completed the tough, icy course at the most prestigious stop on the men's World Cup circuit in 1 minute, 38.88 seconds.
Reinfried Herbst of Austria was 0.36 seconds behind in second place -- his first career podium -- while overall World Cup leader Benjamin Raich was 0.50 back in third.
"It's simply fantastic," Vidal said. "All of us are pretty good, at a similar level, so it is not easy to win. All the other guys also know what they are doing."
Vidal fell to the ground after crossing the line and seeing his time flashing on the big screen. Other skiers and course stewards helped him back up.
Raich's total time secured him the combined title, which is calculated by adding the results of the slalom with Saturday's downhill.
Reigning overall champion Bode Miller finished 18th but his downhill performance earned him second place in the combined. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was third.
"It was very hard, a very tough race," Miller said. "It was very bumpy, especially in the second run."
Miller, who did not finish Friday's super-G but was fifth in Saturday's downhill, said he was content with his second place.
"It was an OK weekend. It wasn't a `Bode' weekend, but it was OK," Miller said. "Benny [Raich] is simply too strong these days, so I could not catch up."
Ryan Blais won a postponed World Cup aerials competition on Sunday, but it wasn't enough to put him on the Canadian Olympic Team.
His roommate, Jeff Bean, finished second and clinched the last Olympic berth.
Blais received 128.10 points for his jump. Bean, who needed to finish fourth or better, scored 124.34 points.
American Jeret Peterson, the defending World Cup champion, finished third with 123.48.
"We want to send the strongest team to Torino next month and I think we're doing that," Blais said. "I won tonight and I'm not even going, so how strong are we?"
Hannu Manninen of Finland won his ninth World Cup Nordic combined event this season on Sunday.
Manninen, 12th after the ski jump, dominated the 15km cross-country race and won in 39 minutes, 57.7 seconds. Bjoern Kirchreisen of Germany, fourth after the ski jump, was 47.1 seconds behind in second place.
Germany's Georg Hettich, who was second in the ski jump, finished third, 1 minute, 20.6 seconds behind Manninen.
Manninen, a favorite for next month's Winter Olympics, leads the overall standings with 1,064 points, followed by Ronny Ackermann of Germany with 501 points. Norway's Moan Magnus is third with 480 points.
Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset and fellow Norwegian Ella Gjoemle won sprint races on Sunday at a World Cup event.
Hjelmeset won the four-man in a 1.2km classic race in 2 minutes, 29.9 seconds. He edged countryman Johan Kjolstad by 1.1 seconds.
American Todd Hays edged Canada's Pierre Lueders by 0.04 of a second on Sunday in an four-man bobsled World Cup race.
Germany's Andre Lange, Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze took silver with 2:10.82. Russia's Alexander Zubkov, Sergej Golubjev, Alexej Seliverstov and Dimitri Stepuschkin took bronze with 2:10.89.
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