Bode Miller remains sidelined by knee injury as Ted Ligety battles for World Cup GS title

Maybe it was the poor conditions on the course Sunday (Feb. 26) at Crans Montana or maybe Bode Miller knee still hasn’t recovered from arthroscopic surgery last week. In any event, Miller left it to teammate Ted Ligety to lead the American team in a World Cup GS race.

Ligety could only manage a ninth-place finish, leaving him with an uphill battle to defend his  GS title. Read more.

FEB. 24: This  might explain Bode Miller’s dim view of the downhill course at Sochi: The skier injured a knee while racing at the 2014 Winter Olympics site two weeks ago. After skipping a race last weekend, he had “minor” surgery in Vail on Monday and could be back on the circuit as soon as this weekend. Read more.

No such problem for Didier Cuche, who just might be reconsidering his recent announcement to retire at season’s end. The Swiss star gave his home country fans a final victory in a World Cup super-G race Friday at Crans-Montagna. Read more.

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Vonn adds World Cup Super Combined title to her Downhill season title in odd fashion

Turnabout is fair play, right?

Less than a year after Lindsey Vonn lost a shot at the World Cup overall points championship to Maria Hoefl-Riesch when the season’s final race was canceled owing to bad snow conditions, on Sunday (Feb. 19) Vonn won the season title in Super Combined after the season’s final race was canceled for the same reason.

Because World Cup organizers said there wasn’t time to reschedule the race, Vonn was awarded the season crown after winning one race and placing second in the other. Here’s what Lindsey had to say about the circumstances behind her third consecutive title in super combined.

SATURDAY (Feb. 18): When does third place mean victory? When you’re Lindsey Vonn.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch cruised to a convincing win on Saturday (Feb. 18) in the downhill during what amounted to a preview of  the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. But Vonn’s third-place finish helped her clinch the season title in downhill (her fifth straight) and means she still holds a 448-point lead in the overall standings. It was a great day overall for the Americans, as four of its six starters reached the top 10, including Julia Mancuso (sixth), Stacey Cook (ninth), and Alice McKennis (tenth). Read more.

A super-combined will be held on Sunday (Feb. 19).  Check back for results.

PREVIOUSLY FROM SOCHI: No “ladies first” this time.

Lindsey Vonn eyed the course during training.

The men’s World Cup tour got first crack, last weekend, at the course where the downhill will be held at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. What did they think? Didier Cuche called it “magnificent.” Bode Miller was critical. Find out why they disagreed. Then Beat Feuz just went out and won the race.

The women are getting their chance this weekend. Overall points leader Lindsey Vonn was the leader in Friday’s training run by a wide margin.

Earlier, Vonn and others pronounced the course Olympics-worthy after training on Wednesday, despite windy conditions. On Thursday, a snowstorm canceled the training session, at which some criticism arose about how few people were there to clean snow off the course.

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Men give Sochi Olympics downhill course in Russia its first World Cup test

Aksel Lund Svindal snaps a photo atop top of Rosa Khutor downhill course.

UPDATE: Let the handicapping for the 2014 Olympics downhill begin with Beat Feuz  as the early leader, thanks to his World Cup victory on Feb. 11. Read more.

What will happen at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi? Who knows? But World Cup skiers got their first taste of the downhill course during a training run Wednesday (Feb. 8) on the Rosa Khutor slope.

What did they think? Didier Cuche called it “magnificent.” Bode Miller was highly critical. Find out why they disagreed.

When it comes to the training runs on the course, things are heating up. On Thursday (Feb. 9), for the second straight day, Austria’s Hannes Reichelt posted the fastest time. But after a slow start on Wednesday, bigger names like Miller (fourth), defending downhill champ Erik Guay (ninth) and two-time overall World Cup winner Aksel Lund Svindal (10th) moved up the ranks after him. Read more.

The men will  race a World Cup downhill on Saturday and a super-combined race on Sunday. Check back here for results. The women’s World Cup field will race here Feb. 18-19.

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Didier Cuche surprise: ‘This is the right moment to retire”

Never mind that Didier Cuche could win a record-equaling fifth World Cup downhill title this season. The  Swiss ski star says he’s had enough.

The surprising decision by the 37-year-old came Thursday (Jan. 19) in Kitzbuehel, Austria, at a news conference prior to Saturday’s classic Hahnenkamm Downhill. Read more.

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Mancuso gets a rare podium in Aspen while 16-year-old Shiffrin shines; Cuche has a 1-2 weekend in downhill, Super G races on men’s side

Mikaela Shiffrin, 16, ran a great race on Sunday in Aspen.

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What is it with American women when they ski on home soil, especially Aspen?

That has to be the question after another less than thrilling performance for the red, white and blue in World Cup giant slalom and slalom races in Aspen over the weekend (Nov. 26-27).

There was some good news: Julia Mancuso made the podium with a third-place finish in Saturday’s Giant Slalom. But here’s the reality: it was the first GS podium for an American woman in Aspen since 1981! Learn more about Mancuso’s efforts and where Lindsey Vonn wound up in this Denver Post story.

On Sunday the big news in the slalom race for the U.S. was an eighth-place finish by 16-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin of Vail. So what happened to Mancuso, Vonn and Sarah Schleper? Read more.

MEN’S WORLD CUP RACES IN LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA

Didier Cuche may be 37 years old, but the Swiss skier isn’t slowing down. Cuche won the downhill season-opener on Saturday (Nov. 26) in the World Cup race at Lake Louise, then placed second in Sunday’s Super G behind Norway’s Askel Lund-Svindal. It wasn’t a bad weekend for Bode Miller and other Americans. Read more.

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