BEAVER CREEK, Colo. |Tina Maze of Slovenia has captured gold in the Alpine combined, earning her third medal of the world championships on a warm afternoon when Lindsey Vonn failed to finish the slalom.
Leading after the downhill portion, Maze used a clean slalom run to finish in a combined time of 2 minutes, 33.37 seconds Monday. Nicole Hosp of Austria was second, 0.22 seconds behind, and fellow Austrian Michaela Kirchgasser earned third.
Vonn struggled in the downhill with the icy surface bothering her surgically repaired right knee and then straddled a gate, ending her day. Vonn was in tears after the race.
Maze adds this gold to the silver she won in the super-G and gold in the downhill. She’s trying to match Norwegian great Lasse Kjus, who earned five medals at the 1999 worlds in Beaver Creek.
Kjus said of Maze’s pursuit: “She’s a fantastic skier. She can do it.”