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Lara Gut wins Super-G World Cup race, Vonn 3rd

Switzerland’s Lara Gut smiles after completing an Alpine Ski women's World Cup Super G race, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany on Sunday. (Gio Auletta / Associated Press)
Nesha Starcevic Associated Press

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany – Lara Gut of Switzerland won her first Super-G race of the season on Sunday to cut into Lindsey Vonn’s overall World Cup lead.

Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany edged Vonn for second place as the American narrowly missed out on winning back-to-back races on the Kandahar hill. Vonn won Saturday’s downhill.

Still, Vonn set an all-time high with her 42nd podium finish in a Super-G. Renate Goetschl of Austria had 41.

Vonn’s 27 World Cup wins in Super-G races is already a record for both men and women. She had won seven of the last eight Super-G races going back to January 2015.

But Gut found the winning line on a dark and bumpy course to win by .15 seconds. Vonn was .23 seconds back in third.

“I didn’t risk everything and Lara did,” said Vonn, who had won the three previous Super-G races this season.

Gut now has 17 career wins, eight of them in Super-G.

“I didn’t think very much, I just let go,” Gut said after her fifth win of the season.

Gut is now 87 points behind Vonn in the overall World Cup standings. Vonn also remains atop the Super-G standings.

“When I ski the way I can, I am able to mix it up with the best,” said Gut, who finished a disappointing 14th in Saturday’s downhill. “I just made fewer mistakes than the others.”

“It’s much better when I focus only on the skiing and not think about the points. It’s not true that Lindsey is unbeatable, all of us just have to step on it,” Gut said.

Rebensburg made the podium for the second straight day after finishing third in the downhill. She also won the last two giant slaloms.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better weekend before home fans,” Regensburg said. “Lara put together a really good run. I thought I had lost time at the bottom but it was just the opposite.”

Vonn said the conditions were tough.

“I didn’t have a good feeling for the snow. The flat light, the bumps and the spring snow, the whole thing combined to make me more hesitant than I normally am,” Vonn said. “I played it safe, made it to the finish line healthy and I think that was the right decision.

“I am not in the position with the points where I have to risk everything,” she said.