Surprise Austrian Scheyer tops Altenmarkt-Zauchensee podium

A wild week of weather in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, finally gave way for the ladies' World Cup tour on Sunday as the speed athletes were able to hold both a downhill training run and race in the same day. And to the delight of the local crowd, a relative newcomer to the circuit – and Austrian – skied away with the victory from bib 25 after posting the second-fastest training run earlier in the day.

Christine Scheyer had only ever stood on a European Cup podium twice and competed in a total of three World Cup downhill races prior to the day. But she had scored in all three, with a best result of ninth in Val d'Isere, and she knew she had the potential to be somewhat fast, at least within the top 10.

"No, not that fast," she replied when asked if she knew she had winning speed. "I was fast in training, but this is amazing. ... It's great to be proud. And if an Austrian wins, I think it's the best that can happen."

Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was holding down the leader box when Scheyer overtook her, but she was still thrilled to finish the day in second place.

"It was amazing because at the start, I knew that Lara was leading and I was like, ‘Well, this could be a revival of the Junior World Champs where I won seven hundredths in front of her.'  So I was trying to believe that I could win," Weirather said. "I knew it was going to be tricky just because the light changes and also [Scheyer] was so fast in training that I knew that she was going to be a tough one. And she did really well, so that's fine. I haven't been on the [downhill] podium in almost two years, so it still feels great."

Scheyer was joined on the podium in third by another first-timer, Jacqueline "Jackie" Wiles of the U.S. Ski Team, whose previous best downhill result was 15th and super-G 10th. Wiles made her World Cup debut in 2013 and has been working toward a career result over the past few seasons.

“You dream of it. But for it to actually happen, you know, it’s unreal,” she said of her podium finish. “After a tough start to the season – of so many expectations falling flat – I really needed this, and it couldn’t have come at a better time."

Two top-10 ranked athletes heading into the day suffered season-ending injuries during the training run and were long-lined via helicopter off the slope. Nadia Fanchini of Italy sustained a fracture to her right humerus and also transverse process fractures in the lumbar vertebrae. She will undergo surgery in Italy and will miss the rest of the season.

Edit Miklos of Hungary also crashed during the training run and sustained a severe right knee injury including unspecified ligament ruptures and a patella injury. She also sustained a less serious injury to her left knee.

One athlete quite familiar with the dangers of downhill who returned to racing on Sunday was a bit rattled by the training run crashes. Lindsey Vonn skied with little training but still managed a top-15 result in 13th as she made her comeback to the World Cup.

"It was really fun. It was definitely a little bit nerve-wracking because of the crashes first run. And I just skied solid in the training run, but there was a big time difference. You know, the track got considerably faster from my training run to the race. So it was hard to kind of find the timing. I felt like I wasn’t quite on my game. But otherwise, I attacked. I was confident in the start, just missed the timing in a couple turns and just have to watch some video. But I know my skiing, I know what I’m capable of, I know what mistakes I made, so all-in-all, it was a very positive first race."

Downhill standings leader Ilka Stuhec finished fifth, just 0.03 seconds behind Lara Gut in fourth.

See complete results from today's downhill race here.