Schmidhofer wins 2nd straight Lake Louise downhill

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Two days ago, Austrian racer Nicole Schmidhofer had no World Cup wins. Now, she can't lose.

Schmidhofer, the 2017 super-G world champion who claimed the first World Cup victory of her career in the season's first downhill on Friday, backed up that performance at the Canadian resort with a victory in 1 minute 47.68 seconds.

She admitted that after Friday's victory, she hadn't expected a second triumph to come so fast.

"But I'm really happy," Schmidhofer said. "I'm very proud of this."

She led an Austrian one-two ahead of Cornelia Hutter, who was 44-hundredths of a second back, with Switzerland's Michelle Gisin third, 47-hundredths adrift.

Austria had three skiers in the top six, with Ramona Siebenhofer sixth.

"We have a really positive energy in the group and with the coaches," Schmidhofer said of the Austrian team. "That's why we are so fast, and we have a lot of fun."

Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria skis past the Claire's Corner gate before winning the 1st Women's Downhill final at the Lake Louise ski resort in Alberta, Canada, November 30, 2018. /VCG Photo

Schmidhofer said it was hard to compare her two Lake Louise runs.

"On Friday, it was so dark and bumpier," she said, adding that in contrast, Saturday's race seemed almost easy.

"Maybe it's too easy and I'm not so fast," she admitted thinking. "But it was fast enough."

American Mikaela Shiffrin, who had her first win in a speed event last winter in Lake Louise, finished fourth.

The reigning world number one took the first two slaloms of the season at Levi and Killington and consolidated her lead in the overall standings.

With 389 points, she owns a healthy lead over Gisin (233).

Source(s): AP ,AFP