Women's Downhill
Austria's Renate Goetschl won her second consecutive speed race within a week, confirming her strong downhill form as the end of the 2000 season draws near. Goetschl, the reigning downhill World Champion, celebrated her fourth season success on the legendary Olympic run on Patscherkofel Mountain, made famous by the exciting Olympic triumph of "Kaiser" Franz Klammer in 1976.

	Renate Goetschl

The defending downhill World Cup Champion defeated Germany's Regina Haeusl, 2nd for the fifth time this season, by 45/100 of a second, and Michaela Dorfmeister, who achieved her best downhill result this winter with 3rd, by half a second.

After this fourteenth career victory, Goetschl increased her lead over Dorfmeister to almost 100 points in the overall standings. With eight more races until the season's end, nothing is over yet, but Goetschl will be tough to beat.

"I was not too nervous before the start because I don't feel any extra-pressure because of the World Cup..." — Renate Goetschl (AUT)

Thanks to her tremendous run down the legendary Olympic course, Goetschl left the Austrian "Wunder" Ski Team unbeaten on this slope, which has only hosted major alpine competitions a few times in the past. At the 1964 Olympics, when the course was used for the first time for a big event, Egon Zimmermann began the era of great Austrian triumphs in Innsbruck. In 1975, during the first World Cup stop here, and again at the Winter Olympics in 1976, Franz Klammer continued the tradition with two more great wins. The latest Austrian hero to successfully defended that streak was Hermann "The Herminator" Maier in December 1998 when he led an extraordinary Austrian sweep in a make-up super G organized a few days before Christmas. None fewer than nine Austrian finished ahead of that memorable race.

	Regine Haeusl

In Goetschl's second consecutive success in a downhill after Are, she was proud to have become the first woman to win an alpine race on this almost holy mountain after rather modest performances in training. During the timed trials, she could not catch the tiny Italian Isolde Kostner or Canada's Melanie Turgeon, who both were fast aggressive on the hard and challenging course during training Wednesday and Thursday.

But a change in the weather and racing conditions put her back on the fast track. "I didn't expect such a great result after the disappointing training runs, it's quite amazing to win again here in front of my friends," said Goetschl, who started much later than the other favorites. "I guess that the warmer temperatures favored my equipment which was not so fast on the cold a dry snow during the past days.

"I was not too nervous before the start because I don't feel any extra pressure because of the World Cup," Goetschl continued. "It was not part of my goal, so I'm not too preoccupied with it. It will come by itself if I can accumulate a series of good results. I felt confident and relaxed this morning and I could attack at full speed. There are still a lot of races left and Michaela Dorfmeister is ready to fight hard until the end. She achieved her best results in downhill this season. The two super G races this weekend will be particularly interesting."

In the downhill standings, Haeusl could reinforce her lead position since her main rival, Isolde Kostner finished 4th after having dominated the three training runs. But on the race day, Kostner's was not skiing as efficiently.

Three US skiers scored points in this race: Kirsten Clark was 28th, Alison Power, who scored her first points, 29th, and Jonna Mendes, 30th. Caroline Lalive skied out of the course.

— Manuele Joyce, MountainZone.com European Correspondent