Lindsey Vonn's World Cup record bid on hold after Super-G crash

American must wait before she clinches her 62nd victory

A disappointed Lindsey Vonn, with her right arm strapped up, leaves the course at Val d’Isère after crashing in the Super-G (AP)

Lindsey Vonn will have to wait until the new year for a record-equalling women’s World Cup victory after she crashed in a Super-G won by Austria’s Elisabeth Görgl on Sunday.

The race in Val d’Isère was the American’s first chance of matching the record of 62 wins set by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll in 1980.

She had dominated Saturday’s downhill on the same course but yesterday took a turn wide, crashed into a gate and was unable to complete her last race of the year.

“Yesterday was a great day, but a very long day,” she said. “I missed a little bit of elevation [today] and I wasn’t able to make the gate.

“The positive thing is that my knees are good and I’m still going home for Christmas with a big smile,” added the American, who returned this month from a year out of action after two knee operations.

The four-times World Cup champion will return in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, next month, while races scheduled for Semmering on 28 and 29 December were moved to Innsbruck because of a lack of snow.

Former world champion Görgl mastered the tricky Val d’Isère course to clinch her seventh World Cup win in one minute and 25.42 seconds.

The Super-G Olympic champion Anna Fenninger secured an Austrian one-two 0.05sec behind, while Slovenia’s Tina Maze was third, 0.13 off the pace.

“It was a tricky course and I kind of like it when it’s tricky,” said Görgl, second to Vonn on Saturday. “I spent a long time for the inspection and then my coaches told me there were weird turns and what to do and it worked out fine.”

Second-placed Fenninger has been below par this winter but said she could celebrate Christmas on a high note.

“Things didn’t work out as well as I would have wanted so far. I had to fight and it was really important to have a good result before the break,” she declared.

Austria’s Marcel Hirscher won the men’s giant slalom in Alta Badia for the second successive season, beating world and Olympic champion Ted Ligety by a huge 1.45sec. France’s Thomas Fanara was third, 0.03 adrift.

“It was definitely one of the toughest races this season. It was like mogul skiing or moto cross skiing,” Hirscher said. “But we’re not searching for easy races. We’re searching for challenges.”