Lindsey Vonn wins Crans-Montana women's downhill

Lindsey Vonn secured her third straight World Cup downhill discipline title Saturday with a narrow victory in her first race since the Vancouver Olympics.

The American beat Italy's Johanna Schnarf by a mere 0.01 seconds after finishing the Nationale downhill course in 1 minute, 35.26 seconds, under difficult conditions.

Marianne Abderhalden of Switzerland was third, 0.38 seconds behind Vonn.

Vonn started 16th in a field of 48 under poor visibility and an icy wind that forced organizers to cancel Friday's super-combined race for safety reasons.

"It was a tough race out there today," Vonn said. "Sometimes there would be a headwind, sometimes a tail wind, it was snowing really hard and there was a lot of new snow on the track."

A dramatic change of conditions in the top part of the course halfway through the race allowed several slower skiers to post impressive times, including Schnarf and Abderhalden, who celebrated their first World Cup podium finishes, and fourth-placed Marusa Ferk of Slovenia. Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg, who surprisingly won the Olympic giant slalom, came fifth.

Anja Paerson of Sweden, who is third in the overall and downhill standings, broke off her run after an apparent problem with her goggles.

It was Vonn's sixth win in seven World Cup downhill races this season, and 10th victory across all disciplines. She is now tied with Bode Miller for the most career World Cup victories by an American _ 32.

Vonn, who won gold in the downhill and bronze in the super-G at the Olympics came, clinched the Crystal Globe for the downhill discipline by increasing her lead over Riesch to 189 with just one race left.

"It's been a great season and I'm really happy with everything that's happened," Vonn said. "I think of all the titles, I am most proud of winning the Olympic downhill gold _ that was the highlight of the season for me."

The International Ski Federation said it would not reschedule the canceled super-combined event, with Vonn leading the standings after just two events held. FIS secretary general Sarah Lewis said Vonn's super-combined title would be confirmed "in the course of the week." Vonn has already clinched the super-G title.

Vonn said she hoped to keep up her momentum through to next week's final World Cup races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She has a 197-point lead in the overall World Cup standings over Germany's Maria Riesch, who was sixth.

"I'm going to keep things going through to finals and hopefully I can stay in the lead in the overall," Vonn said.