Austria's skiers swept three of four World Cup races on the weekend but still experienced their worst moment in the nation's ski history.
Alexandra Meissnitzer kicked off the annual First Criterium with commanding victories in the women's super-G and giant slalom, while Hermann Maier completed the hat-trick with an emphatic win in the men's super-G on Sunday in Val D'Isere, France.But sandwiched in between their successes, the Austrians posted their worst collective result ever when they failed to place a skier among the top-10 in Saturday's men's downhill.
Unheralded Norbert Holzknecht was Austria's top downhiller, finishing in 15th place, while double Olympic champion Maier was 36th and World Cup downhiller Andreas Schifferer was 29th.
While the Austrians fell victim to changeable weather conditions that favored late starters, Norway's Lasse Kjus, the 24th skier onto the OK course, ended a two-year drought by claiming his eighth career victory.
The 1996 overall World Cup champion was followed by Italians Luca Cattaneo and Erik Seletto, both posting career bests.
Under much more consistent conditions Sunday, the Austrians returned to their dominant form as Maier and teammate Stefan Eberharter took the top two places in the men's super-G.
For Maier, the victory ended an early season slump. The 26-year-old Austrian returned to the top of the podium for the first time since October.
The victory lifted Maier to fourth in the overall standings, while Eberharter's second-place finish was enough to give him the lead with 368 points, usurping teammate Christian Mayer, who dropped to second with 302.
Kjus, who capped off a productive weekend with a third-place finish in the super-G, remained third with 281, a point ahead of Maier.
NORDIC COMBINED: At Steamboat Springs, Colo., Olympic champion Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway shook off Finland's World Cup leader, Hannu Manninen, in the final half-kilometer Sunday and went on to win a 15k nordic combined World Cup event.
Vik, sixth in the 112-meter jumping Saturday, finished 15.4 seconds ahead of Manninen, who was third in the jumping.
WOMEN'S BOBSLED: The U.S. team of Jean Racine and Jennifer Davidson took the gold medal in the second race of the Calgary Women's World Cup bobsled race on Sunday. They beat the Swiss team of Francoise Burdet and Doris Marugg by 28 one-hundredths of a second over two runs.