Who: Many of the top female skiers in the world including Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso.
What: Aspen Winternational 
Where: Aspen, Colo.
When: Thanksgiving weekend - Nov. 29 & 30, 2008.
Why: The only U.S. stop on the Women’s World Cup curcuit.

This weekend, the Rocky Mountains will welcome the Aspen Winternational, the annual U.S. swing for the women’s Audi FIS Alpine World Cup. On tap is a thrilling couple of days as the fastest women in the world will compete in the disciplines of Slalom and Giant Slalom on Aspen’s Strawpile racing slope.

Among the competitors are World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn, who was cleared  to compete after bruising her left knee in a training fall and Julia Mancuso, who is overcoming a setback in her training because of a back problem she developed over the summer.

Vonn enters Aspen as the most watched skier on the women’s World Cup. After a solid opening giant slalom in Austria, she went on to shock the ski racing world with her first slalom win on Nov. 15 in Levi, Finland. With the win, Vonn became the first American woman to win at four separate disciplines and sent a message to competitors that the downhill champion was ready to contend in slalom. Giant slalom is the only discipline remaining for Vonn to complete her collection.

Always a Colorado favorite, Mancuso rolls into Aspen on the heels of a season that took her to World Cup podiums in all but slalom. After skipping the first slalom in Levi in favor of extra training, Mancuso is poised to make a mark this weekend.

In the off-season, Mancuso climbed Kilimanjaro with British downhiller Chemmy Alcott to aid Right to Play, the international organization which uses sports to help children in the world’s poorest countries, covered the Beijing Olympics for NBC, surfed in Maui (where she lives during much of her off-time) and squeezed in some downhill training in New Zealand.

Vonn and Mancuso have been friendly rival since they were little girls so it will be interesting to watch these two tough competitors go at it this weekend.

Filed under: Ski by jane

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