Italy's Nadia Fanchini claimed her first career Alpine Ski World Cup victory in Sunday's super-G race, joining sister Elena whose maiden victory came in Lake Louise three years ago.
"I don't have any words to describe my happiness," said Fanchini, whose victory Sunday followed finishing second in a downhill on Friday.
"It is unbelievable for me. Even the second place finish in Friday's downhill I was not expecting. It was a surprise for me."
Fanchini, 22, clocked a time of one minute, 20.97 seconds and finished ahead of Swiss Fabienne Suter and Austrian Andrea Fischbacher, who tied for second in 1:21.25 on the Whitehorn Mountain course.
Sweden's Anja Paerson was fourth with a time of 1:21.31.
The start of the season-opening super-G race was delayed 30 minutes because of poor weather as course workers had to remove 11 centimetres of snow that fell overnight.
The race was held under a steady snowfall but with less wind than Saturday, when organizers decided to cancel the second downhill scheduled for Lake Louise because of safety reasons.
Vonn got her World Cup downhill title defence off to a flying start by winning Friday's downhill.
But Vonn, the reigning World Cup overall champion, barely cracked the top 10 Sunday with a time of 1:21.57, good for ninth.
Fanchini upstaged pre-race favourite Vonn on Sunday and now has a first-place trophy to go with her runner-up in Friday's race.
Fanchini, who wore bib No. 5 on Sunday, - finished 10th in the Olympic downhill at Turin in 2006.
Older sister Elena also posted her first career World Cup win in Lake Louise, winning one of two downhills in 2005. Elena did not compete at Lake Louise after injuring her left knee in the off-season.
"Now we have the same feeling," the younger Fanchini said through an interpreter. "Obviously we miss each other. We are a team -- a powerful team of sisters."
Suter posted her best career result in Lake Louise as both her World Cup wins have come in super-G races in Europe.
In a strange twist, Suter and Fischbacher also tied for first place in the second to last super-G race of last season in Sestriere, Italy.
Suter also went on to win the final super-G of 2007-08 season in Bormio.
"I won the last two super-G races of last season so this is good confirmation and good start for the new season," Suter said.
Fischbacher, 23, was the runner-up in Lake Louise Super-G three years ago. She finished third in the giant slalom last month in Soelden.
"It's really good," Fischbacher said. "I had a good feeling and it was a really good race for me."
Paerson, 27, came out with plenty of fire on Sunday and looked like she was going to challenge Fanchini for top spot but the Swede lost time on the bottom of the course.
Copyright 2008 AFP Global Edition
