It’s the Sweep at Lake Lindsey.

Not only did Lindsey Vonn return to the starting gate after being hampered by injury to reclaim her downhill title Saturday, December 6 at Lake Louise, but her victory came as the U.S. pulled off its first all-American podium in alpine World Cup ski racing.

Lake Louise has been kind to Vonn  as 15 of her 60 World Cup victories have come at the Alberta, Canada course. Despite two knee operations, Vonn blew away the competition by almost a half second as  teammate Stacey Cook placed second and Julia Mancuso took third.

The U.S. placed four in the top ten with Laurenne Ross finishing sixth.

“Sweeping the podium for the first time in U.S. skiing history is amazing,” said alpine director Patrick Rimi. “Kudos to the athletes for an unbelievable job on and off the hill and to the staff for providing top preparation and training for the athletes.”

After she crossed the finish line, Vonn let out cheer and fell to the ground on her back with a smile.

“Every day has gotten better here,” she said. “Today, I went a little bit more aggressive than I did yesterday and took some more chances. I’m finally feeling confident again going fast. I’m pushing the limits and I want more speed. I haven’t had that yet until today.”

Vonn said there had been some changing terrain at Lake Louise over the last couple of days.

“Every day is a little bit different,” she said.  “I tried to pay a little more attention to that because obviously you couldn’t see it today. The light was really bad, but I know this course really well. It was a matter of looking at the snow conditions and the terrain.”

Vonn’s win puts her in prime position for a shot at the all-time women’s World Cup victory record held by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell with 62.

Cook said she thought the all-American podium was something possible.

“I really wanted to be a part of it when it happened,” Cook said.  “It’s a good day to step up. I’m so excited for Lindsey too. It’s a cool day.”

Cook says she sometimes gets intimidated by the thought of racing the whole world.

“So today, I tried to keep it within our team,” Cook said. “We race against our team in training and I tried to keep that same feeling. Today, I just went out there and I knew that there is so much talent in this group, so I felt like I was just racing against them. It took a lot of pressure away from me, so I just let it flow.”

The race gives Cook more experience and boosts her confidence in her pursuit for more podiums this season as the team moves forward.

“We’ve had ups and we’ve had downs,” said Cook. “I think every team will go through that. It’s just unfortunate that our down was in the spotlight of the Olympics. But, we’re really great friends and it really helps having Lindsey back and her competitiveness and enthusiasm for this sport. It pushes us and we thrive when we push each other.”

Mancuso says the new team dynamic has the racers take a step back and not make training so serious.

“It’s serious because we need to be out there and working on something, but it’s not serious because it’s not a race,” Mancuso said. “We save all that energy and all those good things we learn while training for race day.”

She also welcomed being part of the historic sweep.

“It’s cool because both of the girls on the podium with me are my age,” she said. “We’re all the same age—born in ’84—and we’re veterans of the World Cup. We’ve all been working very hard and I’ve grown up with both of them. It’s an awesome day!”