Vonn leads in Olympic alpine combined

One day after winning a gold medal in the downhill, Vonn returned to the same course and finished .33 of a second in front of good friend and rival Maria Riesch of Germany.
American Julie Mancuso, silver medalist in the downhill, was third.
In the super combined, competitors take part in a downhill run and then move to the slalom course for two runs. The times for those three efforts are combined to determine the winner.

Riesch was in excellent position to capture the event because she is the slalom World Cup leader this season. Vonn, the overall leader on the circuit, is 13th in the slalom rankings.

Mancuso was .80 of a second behind Vonn in the downhill, followed by Fabienne Suter of Switzerland (1.13 behind) and Marie Marchand-Arvier of France (1.25 back).

Kathrin Zettel of Austria, who is second to Riesch in World Cup slalom, was 11th in the downhill portion of the super combined. Zettle began the slalom portion of the event trailing by 1.85.

The difficult downhill course was altered Thursday for the combined.

Seven skiers were unable to make it to the bottom of the hill Wednesday, chiefly because of a severe jump near the bottom of the course. The angle of the takeoff for that jump was reduced for the combined and the course was made shorter, although that is a normal procedure on the World Cup circuit.

Sweden's Ajna Paerson, who escaped with only bruises after falling heavily in the downhill, finished seventh in the downhill portion of the combined.

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