Around the World
Maze, Vonn & Gut press conference in Val d'Isère
Val d'Isère, France - As usual an opening press conference took place on Thursday afternoon. Here is a glimpse of what the winners of the last three speed races in Lake Louise, Lindsey Vonn, Lara Gut and Tina Maze told the media.
Lindsey Vonn: “My knee is healthy at last”
Back in Val d’Isere a year after putting an end to her season and deciding to have a knee operation, Lindsey Vonn said she was glad to return to the French resort healthy at last:
“For sure I’m back in very different conditions. My knee is healthy at last. So I hope to have two good races at the weekend. I was actually surprised to be back so quickly. The first race in Lake Louise was roughly what I expected but the second downhill and the Super-G were really great performances,” she told a news conference.
Vonn stunned everybody when she won only her second race back on the World Cup circuit on her favourite resort of Lake Louise two weeks ago.
“After Lake Louise, I trained in Beaver Creek on the men’s World Cup course. It was really challenging for it’s a very intense course. I put the focus on speed because as I’ve said I had very little training and I feel more and more comfortable, more and more aggressive with each run. Val d’Isere’s OK piste is normally easier than the Birds of Prey so I hope to have two good races here,” she said.
While the men’s World Cup races scheduled here were cancelled, Vonn said she had no worries about the weekend's downhill and Super-G.
“We’re used to ski in bad conditions and I remember skiing in very bad snow conditions here and I don’t think it will be a problem.”
Asked about her prospects for the season, the American four-times World Cup winner said she was focusing on speed events for now.
“I’ll do GS later this season for sure as I actually trained more for GS than speed. I’ll probably ski GS around the world championships or afterwards because there are no GS’s in January and I won’t be doing Semmering because I want to spend Christmas with my family. Slalom I’m not sure because it’s not easy to start from the back.”
Lara Gut: “Always a pleasure to be back in Val d’Isere”
Lara Gut is almost at home in Val d’Isere where she won a downhill in 2013 and two medals at the world championships in 2009.
“It’s always a pleasure to be back in Val d’Isere because this is where I came to ski as a kid on my holidays. I think I’ve never done less than a podium here. Last year I had even more pressure because I was coming here as the World Cup leader for the first time,” she said.
Winner of a Super-G in Lake Louise this season, the Swiss said she had drawn inspiration from watching the men race.
“When I was in Lake Louise, I watched the men’s Super-G in Beaver Creek because it’s always a spectacular race to watch. There’s always something to learn from the men, from their aggressiveness, their intensity.”
Asked if Tina Maze was her most serious opponent for the overall World Cup standings, she said.
“Skiing is not like tennis, there’s not only two of us, it’s not only me and Lindsey and Tina, there also Anna (Fenninger), Tina Weirather and many others.
Tina Maze: “The organisers did a great job”
World Cup leader Tina Maze can boast a better total of points at this stage than in her record season in 2013.
“I actually did not have such a good start but then suddenly things came back into place and I started winning again. It’s nice to win in all four disciplines because I have fun doing that. My main problem is to win two races in succession because I’ve struggled doing that this season. But for sure it was my big goal this season to work hard again to win the World Cup again,” she said.
“I did have a little bit of time to relax after Are but it was not easy because we all had a long way to travel. We came by car from Zurich and we got lost! I came here early because I like to be in the place where we ski at the weekend and because the snow conditions in Europe at the moment make it difficult to find places to ski”, she added.
The Slovenian praised the organisers for the preparation of the course.
“I’m not worried about the weather conditions because they already made a great job as I was told there was hardly any snow last week and they still have one more day to prepare the course.”
Lindsey Vonn: “My knee is healthy at last”
Back in Val d’Isere a year after putting an end to her season and deciding to have a knee operation, Lindsey Vonn said she was glad to return to the French resort healthy at last:
“For sure I’m back in very different conditions. My knee is healthy at last. So I hope to have two good races at the weekend. I was actually surprised to be back so quickly. The first race in Lake Louise was roughly what I expected but the second downhill and the Super-G were really great performances,” she told a news conference.
Vonn stunned everybody when she won only her second race back on the World Cup circuit on her favourite resort of Lake Louise two weeks ago.
“After Lake Louise, I trained in Beaver Creek on the men’s World Cup course. It was really challenging for it’s a very intense course. I put the focus on speed because as I’ve said I had very little training and I feel more and more comfortable, more and more aggressive with each run. Val d’Isere’s OK piste is normally easier than the Birds of Prey so I hope to have two good races here,” she said.
While the men’s World Cup races scheduled here were cancelled, Vonn said she had no worries about the weekend's downhill and Super-G.
“We’re used to ski in bad conditions and I remember skiing in very bad snow conditions here and I don’t think it will be a problem.”
Asked about her prospects for the season, the American four-times World Cup winner said she was focusing on speed events for now.
“I’ll do GS later this season for sure as I actually trained more for GS than speed. I’ll probably ski GS around the world championships or afterwards because there are no GS’s in January and I won’t be doing Semmering because I want to spend Christmas with my family. Slalom I’m not sure because it’s not easy to start from the back.”
Lara Gut: “Always a pleasure to be back in Val d’Isere”
Lara Gut is almost at home in Val d’Isere where she won a downhill in 2013 and two medals at the world championships in 2009.
“It’s always a pleasure to be back in Val d’Isere because this is where I came to ski as a kid on my holidays. I think I’ve never done less than a podium here. Last year I had even more pressure because I was coming here as the World Cup leader for the first time,” she said.
Winner of a Super-G in Lake Louise this season, the Swiss said she had drawn inspiration from watching the men race.
“When I was in Lake Louise, I watched the men’s Super-G in Beaver Creek because it’s always a spectacular race to watch. There’s always something to learn from the men, from their aggressiveness, their intensity.”
Asked if Tina Maze was her most serious opponent for the overall World Cup standings, she said.
“Skiing is not like tennis, there’s not only two of us, it’s not only me and Lindsey and Tina, there also Anna (Fenninger), Tina Weirather and many others.
Tina Maze: “The organisers did a great job”
World Cup leader Tina Maze can boast a better total of points at this stage than in her record season in 2013.
“I actually did not have such a good start but then suddenly things came back into place and I started winning again. It’s nice to win in all four disciplines because I have fun doing that. My main problem is to win two races in succession because I’ve struggled doing that this season. But for sure it was my big goal this season to work hard again to win the World Cup again,” she said.
“I did have a little bit of time to relax after Are but it was not easy because we all had a long way to travel. We came by car from Zurich and we got lost! I came here early because I like to be in the place where we ski at the weekend and because the snow conditions in Europe at the moment make it difficult to find places to ski”, she added.
The Slovenian praised the organisers for the preparation of the course.
“I’m not worried about the weather conditions because they already made a great job as I was told there was hardly any snow last week and they still have one more day to prepare the course.”
Source: fis-ski.com
