Womens Skiing-Mancuso and Vonn to kick start Audi FIS Tour
SOELDEN, Austria Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) will be at the start gate when the 2011 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup Cup tour kicks off this weekend in Soelden.
Action begins Saturday with women's giant slalom. Also in the women's gate are four-time Olympian Sarah Schleper and 2010 Olympian Megan McJames (Park City, UT).
Mancuso was on the 2007 opening podium with a second to kick off a record season that put her in contention for the overall title. She and Vonn have been preparing for the weekend in nearby Pitztal, with Schleper and McJames joining them for the last day of training before heading to Soelden.
"We had four good days on some hard ice at Pitztal," said women's Head Coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "Lindsey is unbelievably confident now on the ice and Julia is doing some great things with her new skis. We've done everything we needed to do to prepare for this weekend."
The women's Team now has one day off before resuming training on the Rettenbach Glacier high above Soelden.
In addition to Miller and Ligety, men's starters also include Olympians Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV), Tommy Ford (Bend, OR) and Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT) plus Warner Nickerson (Gilford, NH) and Will Gregorak (Longmont, CO).
