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Kitzbuehel, Austria • Hannes Reichelt became the first Austrian winner of the classic Hahnenkamm downhill in eight years on Saturday, helped by Bode Miller's "heartbreaking" mistake midway down the mountain.

Reichelt avoided the mistakes of his rivals and was cheered by 50,000 spectators when the green light for the fastest time appeared in the finish area at an event watched by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Reichelt mastered the Streif course in 2 minutes, 3.38 seconds. Overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal trailed by 0.21 in second, and Miller was 0.34 behind in third.

"This is like dream," said Reichelt, and admitted he had "little tears in my eyes" during the flower ceremony.

Miller dominated the only training session on Thursday, but had a costly mistake when he came off the race line at the Seidalm section halfway down the course on Saturday. He finished in the top three in a downhill for the first time in nearly two years after missing last year because of knee surgery.

"Winning training runs doesn't do it for you," Miller said. "You've got to execute on race day. It's too many times that I've made these stupid mistakes that aren't really forced. They are not forced errors. It's not on a tough part of the course, it's just a real basic part. So, it's pretty heartbreaking.

"I knew it when I came across the finish line, that I'd just wasted another opportunity to win this course."

Miller said he picked the race as the right time to peak before the Olympics. The American worked closely on his setup with technician Chris Krause, who was Didier Cuche's serviceman when the Swiss standout won three years in a row from 2010-12.

"I've been skiing well and I had good confidence and knew what I had to do," Miller said. "It's just execution, and in downhill skiing execution is what matters."

Michael Walchhofer was the last Austrian to win in Kitzbuehel in 2006, and Reichelt's victory will be a big boost to the Austrian men's team two weeks before the start of the Sochi Olympics. The former "Wunderteam" left Vancouver without a single medal four years ago.

"Being an Austrian, coming down this course and winning here in front of all these fans, is a huge present," he said. "This is a real highlight of my career. If you win here, you are a legend."

Until 15 minutes before the race, Reichelt wasn't even sure he was going to start. Suffering from persistent back problem, the 33-year-old Austrian did some free skiing to find out whether he would be able to compete without pain.

"I wasn't feeling too well yesterday," Reichelt said. "But I don't want to talk too much about my back problems. If you win a race, it can't be too bad."

Reichelt celebrated his seventh career win but only second in the discipline. Reichelt was also the last Austrian to win a World Cup downhill in 2012 in Bormio, Italy.

By finishing runner-up, Svindal extended his lead in the overall standings to 102 points over second-place Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who doesn't compete in downhill.

Svindal also tops the downhill standings, leading Reichelt by 440-360 points.

The Norwegian, who won a super-G here last year, is still chasing his first downhill win at the Streif.

"Coming second in Kitzbuehel isn't too bad for a result," Svindal said. "Bode had a mistake, otherwise he would have been unbeatable. I was happy that I was ahead of him when I finished, but I knew you could be faster. And Hannes showed just that."

The weekend ends with two World Cup events Sunday, a super-G race that counts as the first portion of a super-combined, followed by one floodlit slalom run.

Maze finally wins — just in time for Sochi

Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy • Defending overall World Cup champion Tina Maze finally got her first victory of the season, winning the prestigious Cortina downhill Saturday to signal a return to form just in time for the Sochi Olympics.

The Slovenian clocked 1 minute, 37.79 seconds down the Olympia delle Tofane course, which was bathed in sunshine, then performed her trademark handstand celebration during the podium proceedings.

"There were a lot of emotions," Maze said. "It was a really long time. ... When I find the right feeling like I found it today I can ski fast."

Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden of Switzerland finished second, 0.27 seconds behind, and Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was third, 0.38 back.

Maze had a record-breaking season a year ago with 11 wins. This season, she had only three podium results — until this race.

"When you win a lot you don't learn much," Maze said. "With my ups and downs it's a lot of learning."

Two weeks ago, Maze made a staff change in her personal team, which is run by her boyfriend and coach Andrea Massi. They replaced Walter Ronconi with former Switzerland coach Mauro Pini.

The switch seems to have paid off and the timing couldn't have been better — in the final downhill before the Sochi Games, where the women's downhill is scheduled for Feb. 12.

Pini urged Maze to put more emotion into her skiing.

"That was really good because Andrea was always saying to ski without feelings," Maze said. "But sometimes that's not possible.

"(Pini) brought a lot of peace to our team because compared to Andrea and I he's one step in front of us," Maze added. "And that's what we were expecting from someone in that position. He came really motivated and that makes us easygoing and we have more energy for ourselves."

Pini was formerly Lara Gut's personal coach and he led the Swiss men's squad at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, when Didier Defago won gold in downhill. He then coached the Swiss women's team and more recently was a TV commentator.

"I could sense a good feeling from the first words we shared with each other," Pini said. "Tina never forgot how to ski. She was always capable, she just needed to focus her energy better and get rid of those negative vibes."

"At this level a couple different words here or there can create all the difference," Pini added. "It's not like we had to start over from scratch."

With the skies perfectly clear to show off the jagged peaks that provide some of the most spectacular scenery in the Dolomite Range, Maria Hoefl-Riesch finished fourth to follow up her victory in Friday's downhill. The German said she felt some pain in her left knee after landing a jump awkwardly a day earlier.

Still, Hoefl-Riesch maintained her lead in the overall and downhill standings.

In another strong showing from the U.S. Ski Team without injured Lindsey Vonn, Stacey Cook matched her fifth-place finish from Friday and teammate Julia Mancuso placed seventh to match her best result of the season from a super-G two days earlier.

"It always stings when you are so close to the podium, but I know this is a positive move heading toward Sochi," Cook said.

This was the third of four races in four days. Elisabeth Goergl won a super-G on Thursday and another super-G is scheduled for Sunday.

Weirather finished fourth and second in the opening two races this week.

"It's hard to have four good races in a row but I will try," she said.

Two of the races were originally scheduled for last weekend in Cortina but were wiped out by heavy snowfall. The other two were moved from Garmisch-Partenkirchen due to a lack of snow in the German resort.

The women's circuit then moves to Kranjska Gora for a giant slalom and slalom next weekend — the final races before Sochi and Maze's home event.

"I'm really excited to ski that slope," Maze said.

Latvian wins skeleton 'Triple Trophy'

Konigssee, Germany • Latvia's Martins Dukurs clinched his fifth straight overall World Cup men's skeleton championship with a win in Saturday's final race this season.

Dukurs also won the sport's "Triple Trophy" after posting the fastest time in every heat over the season's final three races, earning him a bonus of about $137,000. His winning time Saturday was 1 minute, 40.83 seconds, edging his brother Tomass Dukurs by 0.82 seconds. Frank Rommel of Germany was third.

For the U.S., Matt Antoine finished fourth, missing a medal by 0.16 seconds. John Daly finished 12th and Kyle Tress was 16th in the head-first slide down the track.

The huge bonus payout came with relative ease, even though the track record had been broken twice in just a few minutes before Martins Dukurs' final slide. Tomass Dukurs made it down the track in 50.53 seconds, 0.13 seconds better than his brother's first run.

Martins Dukurs finished in 50.17 seconds, a big margin for sliding, especially with the World Cup title, the race victory and that big payday all hinging on the outcome. The victory was his fifth in a row, sixth of the season and 31st on the circuit in his career.

"No words. No words," Martins Dukurs said. "Looks like skeleton God loves me."

He said he would use some of the bonus money to take his team on vacation, "anyplace in the world."

Martins Dukurs finished the season with 1,720 standings points, 112 more than his brother, who moved up in part because Russia's Alexander Tretiakov opted to skip the race to focus fully on preparing for the Sochi Olympics.

Antoine was third with 1,529 points, the first American man to end the season in the top three since current U.S. assistant coach Zach Lund was third in 2007-08. Daly was eighth in the season-long rankings, with Tress 12th.

"Matt has consistently been in the mix for the medals or on the podium every week," U.S. skeleton coach Tuffy Latour said. "He's really made a big turnaround this season and we as a coaching staff couldn't be prouder."