Tina Maze of Slovenia followed up gold in the downhill at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Vail with a second win in Monday’s women’s combined, . Laurenne Ross finished 14th, making her the top American in the competition. American Julia Mancuso finished 15th.
Lindsey Vonn, who made the surprise decision to race the combined for the first time in more than two years, missed a gate in the slalom and did not finish. “I’m really disappointed,” she told the New York Times through tears. “I tried as hard as I could, but I came up short.” Vonn will have one last chance for another medal in her hometown world championships in Thursday’s giant slalom.
Patrick Kueng of Switzerland won gold at Saturday’s men’s downhill at the world championships, .
American Travis Ganong, 26, won silver, making his result the best by any American at the event. It was his first world championship medal. “I knew I could ski fast. I knew I had it in me to be competitive at the highest level,” the Californian told the Denver Post. “It was just a matter of figuring out how to conquer the nerves and conquer the overexcitement of being at these big events.”
In Sunday’s men’s combined, current World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher won his third career world championship, . American Ted Ligety placed third, earning his sixth world championship medal. Both men were able turn disappointing performances in the downhill into fast slalom times, since their slow times in the first race meant they got to ski first on a rapidly deteriorating course in the second race. Later skiers lost time to slow, soft snow.“After the downhill run, I thought there was no possibility of getting anywhere close to a medal,” Ligety . “We just got really lucky with how it played out.”