Skier Vonn finishes 21st

Associated Press

ASPEN, Colo.

Completely exhausted, Lindsey Vonn collapsed to the snow soon after crossing the finish line.

Totally elated, Tina Maze performed a cartwheel right after her first win in America.

Once Vonn gets healthy again, this could be quite a rivalry. After all, Vonn has what Maze covets most — the overall World Cup crown. Not that Maze’s even thinking that far ahead.

“The season is long. You need to keep your skiing on a high level for three months,” the Slovenian standout said.

Her stamina drained, Vonn simply couldn’t make up ground on Maze in a giant slalom race Saturday. Vonn finished 21st in her return after missing time with an intestinal illness.

Then again, given the way Maze has been racing of late, no one was going to catch her. Maze used a blazing final run to finish in a combined time of 1 minute, 59.39 seconds to hold off Kathrin Zettel of Austria by nearly a second. Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was third.

The 29-year-old Maze also won the season-opening GS race in Soelden, Austria, last month, with Zettel taking second there, too.

“I feel like people are watching me now, more than before,” Maze said. “I’d like it to continue this way.”

All eyes were on Vonn, too, just to see how she performed after a bad stomach bug recently landed her in the hospital. Vonn was 10th after the first run, but didn’t have anything left in the tank for the second pass through the challenging course.