L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Vonn stuns slalom specialists to win in Levi with Pieitiae Holmer second and Maria Riesch in third.... Grange wins mens race from Miller and Kostelic .... Chemmy Alcott suffers clean break of ankle in training in North America, expected to be out till New Year .... Lindsey Vonn injures left knee in training Super G in Copper Mountain, no lay off details announced

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

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Short pieces from Soelden:

Tanja Poutiainen starts the year with 0.00 FIS points having won the GS title last season, Anja Paerson takes second best points with 0.38.  Maria Rienda Contreras, who trained with Chemmy Alcott for a while this summer in South America, is third.  The American press conference for the women's team ended up with Julia Mancuso interviewing her team mates as the press questions dried up, Resi Stiegler admitted to forgetting that this year is an Olympic year.  Mark Tilston admitted to mysnowsports.com that Chemmy Alcott will NOT be racing so as to be better prepared when the "season to starts properly." Chemmy explains her reasoning behind not racing in an article in the Telegraph (click here to read) Lindsey Kildow, who has fast become the darling of the American team, will try to "compete in almost all" the five disciplines this year (the Combined being the 5th). Race protection equipment is to be looked at on the eve of the race due to the growing number of pieces of equipment available to racers.  Sarah Lewis, secretary general of FIS stated to Racer Ready that "there are lots of products on the market and we have to make sure that they conform to the rules." 24 nations are taking pictures from the races, Infront Media who control the rights to the Austrian races added that 8 of these are news access only. A third of the field starting the women's race will be using Rossignol skis.