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By Manuele Lang CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Jan 18 - Renate Goetschl
hopes to extend an unbroken winning streak going back five years
at one of her favourite ski resorts, Cortina d'Ampezzo in the
Dolomites, this weekend. The Austrian has come to Italy fresh from her first downhill
win of the season in Zauchensee and with the best super-G form
on the women's World Cup, making her a favourite for two of the
three races here. Goetschl, 31, has won at least one race each year since 2002
in Cortina. In total, she has had nine career wins here and 11
other podium places. "It's really a special place, I feel very comfortable here,
the region is beautiful and the course is perfect for me,"
Goetschl told reporters. "Even if I'm not as confident as
last year, I'm capable of achieving a strong performance here
because this place is so inspiring to me." The Austrian, overall World Cup champion in 2000, had minor
knee surgery at the end of last season after a disappointing
Winter Olympics in Turin where she finished fourth in the
downhill. Helped by skis bequeathed by her team mate Michaela
Dorfmeister, the Olympic and World Cup downhill and super-G
champion who has now retired, Goetschl has returned to her old
self this season. Good results in Friday's super-G, Saturday's downhill and
Sunday's giant slalom could put her in a strong position to
challenge team mate Marlies Schild for the overall cup. After her win in Zauchensee, where American favourite
Lindsey Kildow crashed, Goetschl is now second in the downhill
rankings, only 15 points behind Kildow, and fourth in the
overall standings. Though she is 340 points behind slalom specialist Schild
overall, Goetschl has the advantage that there are more speed
events than technical races left before the World Cup finals in
Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in March. SUPER-G LEAD Goetschl also has a solid lead in the super-G standings
after wins at Lake Louise and Reiteralm. "I didn't expect to be so strong this winter after my
surgery last winter," said Goetschl, who set the fastest time in
Wednesday's first training run on Cortina's spectacular
Olimpia-Tofana course. "It's really great and it would be nice to win another World
Cup title now." The American women have won three downhills between them
this season and looked strong in Zauchensee where Julia Mancuso
was the fastest in training and Kildow set the best intermediate
race time before her spectacular crash on an icy pitch. Mancuso, the giant slalom Olympic champion, was second here
last year in downhill and super-G and Kildow has finished on the
Cortina podium four times. Both women want to emulate their compatriot Picabo Street,
the 1998 super-G Olympic Champion who won downhills here in 1995
and 1996. "To win once at Cortina d'Ampezzo is definitely on my
agenda, it's such a challenging course and you want to put it on
your list of big wins," said Kildow in January 2004 when she
reached the first World Cup podium of her career here. "It's a complete course with an impressive high-speed
section at the top, demanding turns in the middle part and a
long gliding section at the end." Sweden's Anja Paerson hopes the weekend might give her a
boost after a disappointing start to the season. The former overall cup champion, who won her first giant
slalom here in 2003 and a super-G last season, has yet to win
this season and needs to get her confidence up ahead of the
world championships on home snow in Are next month. Nicole Hosp, the giant slalom winner here in 2006 and at
Kranjska Gora two weeks ago, wants to use the weekend to close
the 133-point gap with team mate Schild in the overall
standings.
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