Michaela Dorfmeister

First Win for Dorfmeister
After having accumulated a series of second places since the season's start, Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister was finally able to celebrate her first season's win in St. Moritz, where she dominated the next-to-last Super-G race of the season.

The skier from Neusiedl, in the northeast of Austria, finished ahead of her teammate Renate Goetschl while America's Kathleen Monahan reached a career best 3rd place in front of another Austrian, Alexandra Meissnitzer.

"I can't describe my feelings at the moment – I just can say that it's wonderful to win a race after such an excellent winter..."— Michaela Dorfmeister

As the German Hilde Gerg only came in 6th, "Meissi" is assured to win her first overall World Cup title before the finals in Sierra Nevada, Spain. But she will have to battle until the last race to take the Super-G title.

Germany's Regina Haeusl came in 5th while two other US skiers scored points: Kirsten Clark was 16th and Megan Gerety, 26th.

Dorfmeister, who has competed on the World Cup tour since 1992, has not won a major race since her success in a downhill in St. Anton in December 1995. That winter she was also third in a Super-G in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, but she had to wait until the Olympic Super-G in Nagano to score another top-3 when she won the silver medal behind America's Picabo Street. This season she has been on the podium several times, including in Vail where she took second in the downhill after having clocked the best intermediate time.

A week ago she was also in the lead after the first downhill run in Are, but she failed to beat Renate Goetschl in the second run, ultimately losing by 7/100 of a second.

This time she was luckier after taking second in the downhill on Friday. "I can't describe my feelings at the moment; I just can say that it's wonderful to win a race after such an excellent winter. I felt confident going into the race as I liked the design of the course which suited very much to my style. I was able to remain relaxed and aggressive in the same time from the start to the finish line."

Michaela, who will turn 26 on March 25, is the sixth Austrian to win a race this winter after Meissnitzer, Goetschl, Christiane Mitterwallner, Sabine Egger, and Anita Wachter. In total, the Austrians have won 18 races out of 34, an impressive dominance indeed.

And US racer Kathleen Monahan was both happy and surprised as her best result before this race was na 8th place in the second Super-G in Mammoth Mountain, Colorado, in December. She started with bib #1, not the best for this rather flat course which became faster after a while. Yet only two skiers were able to improve her time and she took an impressive 3rd place — the best US performance this season in the speed events. In December, Kristina Koznick won a slalom in Austria, but she has faded since.

"I was quite upset by my result in the downhill and I was much more aggressive this time," said the racer from Aspen, who has raced on the World Cup tour for three years. "It's a nice hill and I found my best rhythm. I had no information before the start so I followed my instinct. It worked out perfectly. This is a great result which pays me back for all the efforts over the past years with the team. I had no precise goal before my start so I followed my instinct. It's quite exciting to finish among these strong Austrian."

Kathleen will turn 27 in November and she has been racing since 1992 on the World Cup circuit and she started the season without a result among the best 20. Now she is in 12th place in the Super-G World Cup standings which allows her to compete next week at the finals in Spain. "I was aiming for some top-15 places this winter and I'm really pleased by my season so far," she added.

	Renate Goetschl

Meissnitzer needed some time to enjoy her result which guaranteed her the overall World Cup crown. After he run, she was pretty upset to finish "only" 4th. She needed some time to put a smile on her face.

"It was a tough race and I was quite nervous before to start," she explained. "I had to finish the race ahead of Gerg to be sure to clinch the overall title, but I didn't feel too confident after the downhill," she said. "The course is too easy and I couldn't take the risks to be too aggressive; a failure would have been a disaster. I was anxious to win the big Cup before the finals in Spain so I can better focus on the small World Cups. I'm really elated to win this World Cup which represents so much for me. I was afraid to dream about it at the beginning of the season. I feared the Germans very much since I don't ski the slaloms. It's such a demanding goal; you have to finish as often as possible among the top-3 to have a chance to win it. Technically it means more than a gold medal."

The next women's race, a downhill, will take place in Sierra Nevada next week. The first training run is planned for Monday morning.

— Mountain Zone European Ski Correspondent