LEVI, Finland (AP) — Having won the season’s first giant slalom, Tina Maze of Slovenia has the form, confidence and ambition to add the opening slalom on Saturday and extend her lead for the women’s overall World Cup title.
Maze is also getting help thanks to one of her main challengers, four-time overall champion Lindsey Vonn, deciding to skip the Levi event.
The American is focusing on the Aspen races this month, the only U.S. stop on the women’s circuit.
Maze was the distant runner-up to Vonn in the overall standings last year, her cause undermined by failing to win a race. But she ended that 20-month drought when she convincingly won the first World Cup race in Soelden, Austria, two weeks ago.