Scheduled Tribe. MORITIZ, Switzerland – The queen of downhill skiing is back for good indeed. Faster than the rest even at the age of 41.
Lindsey Vonn cruised to a surprisingly fast victory at the World Cup in St. Moritz on Friday to earn her first win in nearly eight years — and her first in her return from a five-year retirement with a titanium implant in her right knee.
The United States skier surprisingly took the lead by finishing 1.16 seconds ahead of Austria’s Mirjam Puchner. What was even stranger was that Vonn was behind by 0.61 after the first two tests at the Swiss resort.
Vonn’s lead was later reduced to 0.98 – still a large margin in the downhill – when unseeded Magdalena Egger took second place from teammate Puchner.
“It was an amazing day. I couldn’t be happier, couldn’t be more emotional,” Vonn told Swiss broadcaster RTS. “This heat I felt good, but I wasn’t sure how fast I was. I think now I know how fast I am.”
Shortly thereafter, Vonn shed tears on the podium in the finish area when The Star-Spangled Banner was played.
Getting her first win since the fall in Hey, Sweden in March 2018 was a perfect start to her Olympic season.
Vonn’s impressive start to working with new coach Aksel Lund Svindal, the men’s downhill great who won the title at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, shows their great partnership is paying off.
His race looked routine on Friday, when he dropped a tenth of a tenth of Puchner’s time on the top half of the sun-bathed Corviglia course, where the finish is at an altitude of over 6,500 feet.
Vaughn was faster than anyone else during the next speed test, reaching 74 mph, and posted the fastest time split for the bottom half.
She passed through the finish line, hit the inflated safety barrier, lay down in the snow and raised her arms after seeing her time.
Vonn stood up, punched the air with her right fist and screamed with joy before placing her hand on her left cheek. Stephen Curry“Night, night” gesture.
The 2010 Olympic champion is aiming for another gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Games in February. The women’s alpine skiing takes place on the famous Cortina d’Ampezzo course in the Dolomites, which Vonn has mastered in her career with 12 World Cup race wins.
“Obviously my target is Cortina, but if we start like this, I think I’m in a good position,” said Vonn, who will be favored for another downhill victory in St. Moritz on Saturday.
44 wins in 24 years
Friday’s race was Vonn’s 125th World Cup start in her historic career, 24 years after the first in Lake Louise, Canada.
She has won a record-extending 44 of those races so far, including St. Moritz in 2012, and has won 83 races across all World Cup disciplines.
Her previous win in Arey came just weeks after Vonn won the bronze medal in downhill at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games in South Korea won by Sofia Goggia, who finished fourth on Friday. That Olympics was Vonn’s fourth and last Olympics in which she participated.
She won gold medals in downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2009 World Championships in Val d’Isère, France.
Vonn’s dominance in downhill is such that she has won more World Cups in the fastest discipline than any of the other 60 racers combined, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said.
injured rivals
A series of serious injuries this year robbed Friday’s race of World Cup overall winners Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami, Olympic champion Corinne Suter and rising American prospect Lauren Macuga.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Michelle Gisin had back surgery on Thursday after crashing hard in a training race on the steepest part of the St. Moritz course.
“I’m very sorry for Michelle, but that’s ski racing,” said Vonn, who suggested she’s skiing even better in the super-G race at the Swiss resort on Sunday.
