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).

Welcome to the pages looking at the Women's world cup.  Race reports and other stories will appear on these pages...

(L to R: Chemmy Alcott, Tanja Poutiainen, Martina Ertl, Janica Kostelic) All photos courtesy of Zoom Agence

Janica Kostelic returns from injury and states her goals for season.  ANSA.IT report that: Janica Kostelic's aim is the Turin 2006 Olympics. The world champion has put the injury that forced her to have a knee operation last June behind her and is ready to resume training. "I can't wait, I really miss skiing," the Croat said when announcing her return to action in view of the Olympics. In fact, Kostelic has to defend her title at Turin 2006 and has no intention of being unprepared to do so. "Obviously Turin is my main goal, but I will not sacrifice the World Cup," she concluded. "After all, it starts in October and the Olympics are in February."

Gail Kelly's Olympic ski season is over before it began. The Globe and Mail in Canada report that the 25-year-old giant slalom specialist is in hospital in London, Ont., recovering from a complete reconstruction of her right knee Monday, following a crash in downhill training at Valle Nevado, Chile, last Thursday. Kelly, of Sainte-Anges de Beauce, Que., tore up the anterior cruciate ligament in a rough landing coming off a jump. She will be sidelined for at least six months, wiping February's Turin Olympics off her calendar. Dr. Alan Lou, the Canadian team's orthopedic surgeon, was on site at Valle Nevado and evaluated Kelly on the spot before loading her on a plane home. Dr. Robert Litchfield of London's Fowler-Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic rebuilt the knee. "The surgery went very well, and she is expected to make a full recovery," team physiotherapist Kent Kobelka said in an interview from Chile. "Unfortunately it looks like her season is over. Her goal now it to build herself back and come back fitter and stronger than ever. Her spirits are good. Fortunately, she can see positive examples who have come back from ACL surgery, like Kerrin Lee-Gartner and Geneviève Simard." It's another chapter in the hard-luck saga of a promising young female skier who has been dogged by injury. A six-year national team member, Kelly ended her 1997-98 season with knee repairs and rehabilitation after a fall in the world junior championships at Megève, France. When she came back in 1999, Kelly suffered a crash at 100 kilometres an hour in downhill training at the world juniors in Praloup, France. She tumbled for 50 metres and wound up in hospital with a head injury that was later diagnosed as a serious concussion. That kept her out of skiing for the next two seasons. Kelly started last season as Alpine Canada's athlete of the week, bursting to the fore at Soelden, Austria, in October with her best World Cup performance. Kelly pulled off an 11th-place finish in the two-run giant slalom despite starting deep in the pack with the No. 42 bib. Most significantly, Kelly was the fastest woman in the entire field for the second run. It was typical of Kelly's season that she could lay down one blazing run but was always searching for consistency over two runs that would get her to the World Cup podium.

Kelly wasn't the only skier whose Olympic Games dreams were short-circuited in Chile. Austrian downhill skiing champion Werner Franz, considered a good medal prospect for Turin, needed surgery at a German clinic at Santiago after shattering his right ankle at Portillo.