Summary Tina Maze won the season-opening women's World Cup downhill on Friday.
LAKE LOUISE (AFP) - Olympic champion Tina Maze won the season-opening women s World Cup downhill on Friday, while American speed queen Lindsey Vonn finished off the podium in her first race in almost a year.
Slovenia s Maze finished in a time of one minute, 50.98 seconds, topping runner up Anna Fenninger of Austria, who clocked 1:51.43. Liechtenstein s Tina Weirather was third in 1:51.49.
Vonn, who tore her right knee ligaments and broke a bone in her leg in a high-speed crash in February 2013, finished 0.85 seconds adrift of Maze. The injury caused the four-time overall World Cup champion to miss the Sochi Olympics earlier this year.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist Maze claimed her 25th career World Cup win. She won the World Cup overall title in 2013 and also took gold in the giant slalom in Sochi.
Just 24 hours after she posted the fastest time in the final training run in the Canadian Rockies, Fenninger delivered another solid charge down the mountain. The reigning Olympic super-G champion topped Weirather by just 0.06 seconds.
Weirather got off to a quick start last season and was second in the World Cup overall points race when she crashed during a training run at the Olympics in February, causing her to miss the rest of the Sochi Games as well as the remainder of the 2014 season.
