Section: Winter Sports

Skiing, Winter Sports

Winter Sports: Lindsey Vonn equals Ingemar Stenmark’s World Cup record

Lindsey Vonn has equalled Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 19 World Cup titles.

The American won Thursday’s super-G race to match Stenmark’s mark, a day after winning a record-equalling seventh downhill title.

Vonn’s World Cup win in Meribel was her 67th, a women’s record.

The 30-year-old said: “Ingemar is a legend in our sport and someone I’ve always idolised. I’m honoured to be mentioned in the same sentence as him.”

On chasing Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup wins from the 1970s and 80s, she added: “Mathematically it’s definitely possible, but it’s not my goal. My goal is just to keep winning races.”

Vonn picked up a crystal globe, her 19th, as super-G’s best performer over the season.

“I knew I had to win the race to win the globe,” added Vonn, who had watched closest rival Anna Fenninger of Austria set the fastest time just four runners before.

Vonn only returned to racing at the start of this season after two serious knee injuries.

Earlier this year, she overtook Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell’s 35-year women’s record of 62 career World Cup wins.

Meribel is the final World Cup meeting of the season.

Read more at BBC Sport

Speed Skating, Winter Sports

Winter Sports: Elise Christie wins short track speed skating World Cup silver

British short track speed skater Elise Christie took 500m silver in the World Cup event in Dresden, Germany.

Italy’s Arianna Fontana won gold, with China’s Fan Kexin claiming bronze.

The result left Christie, 24, sixth in the overall 500m rankings  and meant Fan has secured the overall title with one World Cup event left.

Christie, who won her first European Championship title last month, took two bronzes in the previous World Cup competition in South Korea in December.

Read more at BBC Sport

Skeleton, Winter Sports

Winter Sports: Lizzy Yarnold crowned European skeleton champion in Austria

Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold has won gold at the European Championship in Igls, Austria.

It was the 26-year-old Briton’s second gold medal in as many daysfollowing her victory in the World Cup at the same track on Saturday.

Austria’s Janine Flock, the defending champion, won silver and Britain’s Rose McGrandle the bronze.

The event doubled as the sixth World Cup of the season, with Yarnold remaining third overall.

Ahead of the final round, which takes place in Sochi, defending World Cup champion Yarnold trails leader Flock by 53 points with a maximum of 225 remaining.

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Yarnold said: “Being European Champion was a huge goal of mine, I desperately wanted to add that crown.

“It was one of the goals for the season and the other one is the World Championships so it’s been a really, really good day.”

The European Championship was scheduled to take place in La Plagne, France, last month but was postponed because of “unacceptable ice conditions”.

The World Championships take place on 6 March in Winterberg, Germany.

Read more at BBC Sport

Speed Skating

Speed Skating: Elise Christie wins two golds at European Championships

Great Britain’s Elise Christie has won two gold medals at the Short Track Speed Skating European Championships.

Christie, who was disqualified from all her races at the 2014 Winter Olympics, faced a nervous wait after clipping favourite Arianna Fontana on the last lap of the 1500m.

But the judges ruled Christie was not at fault and the result stood.

The Scot, 24, later led the 500m race from the gun to add a second gold in the Netherlands.

She said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic that I won the 1500m and 500m. I actually got a bit emotional afterwards.

“I’ve never even got to a final in a European 500m in my whole career so I’m over the moon that I’ve not only reached the podium, but have left with a gold medal.

“I definitely feel like all my hard work is paying off.”

Christie is also defending champion and favourite to take the 1,000m title on Sunday.

British team-mate Charlotte Gilmartin also qualified for the 1500m final, where she finished fifth.

Read more at BBC Sport

Ski Slopestyle, Winter Sports

Ski Slopestyle: British skier Katie Summerhayes wins world silver

Katie Summerhayes has become the first British female skier to win a Freestyle World Championships medal.

The 19-year-old won a silver in the ski slopestyle final at the championships in Kreischberg, Austria.

She scored 82.80 points,  as Germany’s Lisa Zimmerman took gold with 85.80. Slovakia’s Zuzana Stromkova was third.

The Sheffield skier won the world junior slopestyle title last April, two months after she finished seventh at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Read more at BBC Sport

Snowboard Slopestyle, Winter Sports

Snowboard Slopestyle: Aimee Fuller reaches semi-final in Austria

Great Britain’s Aimee Fuller has qualified for the snowboard slopestyle semi-final at the Freestyle World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria.

She finished third with the top two from each heat automatically qualifying for Wednesday’s final.

She advances to a semi-final where six riders will vie for two final places.

Team-mates Billy Morgan and Sam Turnbull missed out in the men’s qualification and Jamie Nicholls did not compete because of illness.

On Tuesday, Katie Summerhayes bids to qualify for the ski slopestyle final, which is also on Wednesday.

Later in the week, the freestyle skiers and snowboarders will be back in action in the big air competition.

Former World Championship silver medallist James Woods is not competing in Austria, as he is in Colorado for the X Games. He will be in action in the ski slopestyle eliminator on Wednesday as he looks to win a third X Games medal.

Read more at BBC Sport

Skiing

Skiing: Lindsey Vonn equals World Cup wins record in Italy

Lindsey Vonn equalled the women’s record for most World Cup wins with the 62nd victory of her career at Sunday’s race in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The American’s winning time of one minute 39.61 seconds was 0.32 seconds ahead of Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.

It was Vonn’s third win of the season after returning to action following two serious knee injuries.

Vonn, 30, can break Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell’s 35-year-old record in a super-G race scheduled for Monday.

Retired Swedish downhill skier Ingemar Stenmark holds the men’s record with 86 wins.

Vonn is in sixth place in the World Cup series standings,  with Slovenia’s Tina Maze in first place.

“I felt it was just getting ahead of the actual skiing,” Vonn said about the record. “I’m happy that the story is hopefully behind me now so I can just move forward and continue to do my best and hopefully get a lot more wins.”

Read more at BBC Sport

Skeleton, Winter Sports

Skeleton: Lizzy Yarnold wins Lake Placid World Cup gold

Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold made a winning return to the sport with victory in the season-opening Lake Placid World Cup in the United States.

Yarnold won the overall World Cup title last season, but had not competed since claiming gold in Sochi in February.

She finished her two runs in a combined time of one minute 51.16 seconds, with Canada’s Elisabeth Vathje second and Janine Flock of Austria third.

“I knew I had to bring my best and fortunately I did,” said Yarnold.

The 26-year-old slider recently experienced her first crash during a training run in Germany – something she attributed to ‘complacency’after her recent domination of the sport.

Despite the absence of now retired Olympic silver medallist Noelle Pikus-Pace and World champion Shelley Rudman, who is pregnant, Yarnold showed no signs of overconfidence.

The Bath-based athlete led by 0.30 secs at the halfway stage before securing victory by 0.77 secs with a solid second run on the track she also claimed gold on last season.

“With it being early in the season I was a bit apprehensive that I wouldn’t be fast enough,” admitted Yarnold.

“There have been so many retirements, but the younger athletes are so good and that is pushing me to go quicker.”

Team-mate Rose McGrandle finished an impressive sixth, while World Cup debutant Laura Deas was 12th.

Read more on BBC Sport