Isolde Kostner of Italy won for the second day in a row and the third straight time wearing bib #22 at this Canadian Rockies area. Picabo Street (Park City, UT) overcame a mid-race mistake to finish 5th in the second World Cup downhill of the season with teammate Kirsten Clark (Raymond, ME) in 8th place.

"I guess 22 is just a lucky number for me," Kostner said after collecting the 11th win of her career, finishing with a time of 1:38.13 on the 2.7-km course. She won both DHs this week, took the second downhill a year ago (after Petra Haltmayr of Germany was the surprise first-race winner), and captured the lone downhill here two years ago. Overall, Kostner has eight top-2s at Lake Louise and 10 top-3s.

Sylviane Berthod of Switzerland was second in 1:38.19 with Michaela Dorfmeister, the World Cup leader from Austria, third in 1:38.35. Canadian Melanie Turgeon, who injured a shoulder Thursday when she crashed about 200 meters from the finish, was fourth (1:38.36).

Four Americans in Top 30
Street, racing No. 2, hooked a gate as she came into Coaches' Corner at the top of the course's midsection but held the top spot until the skiers at the back of the pack raced. She was tops until Kostner (22) came down. Berthod skied 30th, one spot behind Clark; Dorfmeister started 25th and Turgeon 26th. Street, the two-time World Cup DH champion who missed the '99 and '00 while recovering from multiple injuries suffered in a crash a month after winning the '98 Olympic super G gold medal, finished with a 1:38.46 clocking and Clark's time was 1:38.63.

In addition, Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 26th and Katie Monahan (Aspen, CO), coming back from two years on the sidelines with knee injuries, scored her first World Cup points since the end of the 1999 season, coming down 28th. Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley was 32nd, missing the top-30 by .11.

"The top three's hard to penetrate. These girls are good," Street said, "and I think I can ski with them. So, I'm wanting that for myself now. I'm not expecting to cruise my way down the course. I'm looking for a number '1' by my name when I get to the finish line."

Although she left the finish area after being knocked off the podium, she explained, "I'm happy with fifth place, I am. I'm happy with my progression, but I'm not happy with my skiing because I still have work to keep doing, so that's why I'm a little bit upset.

"But I'll take two top-6s and roll over to Europe with some confidence under my belt."

Clark, who lost some speed at the bottom of the run, added the top-10 to Thursday's 11th and a ninth in giant slalom at Copper Mountain as she and Street are tied for 11th in World Cup points with 85. Dorfmeister leads with 276 and Kostner is second at 228.

"It was good. I'm happy," Clark said. "I thought I skied a lot better than [Thursday]. I would have liked to be top-5 -- that was my goal for today -- but top-10? I'll take it. It's packed in there really tight, hundredths of second apart."

Said DH/SG Head Coach Jim Tracy, "We wanted to do a little better than we did [Thursday] and that's what we did, so that part was good. It's still a little gut-wrenching, though, because if Picabo hadn't hooked her arm on that gate and lost five- or six-tenths of a second, it'd be a different story. And Kirsten out-skied everybody for two-thirds of the race...

"The Europeans know we've got at least four of 'em who can be in the top-5, if not on the podium, every time, so...we're moving forward nicely."

The women conclude the annual Winterstart World Cup Saturday with a super G before heading back to Europe. U.S. women, however, will stay in Lake Louise for several extra day, though, so they can compete in Nor Am races, two downhills and a pair of super Gs, before they go to Europe.

— Courtesy, US Ski Team