ST MORITZ, Switzerland, Dec 12 (Reuters) – American great Lindsey Vonn won the opening women’s World Cup downhill of the season on Friday to make Alpine ski history at the age of 41 and give her 2026 Olympic comeback hopes a sensational boost.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion took the 83rd win of her career – and first since a downhill in Are, Sweden, in March 2018 – by 0.98 of a second in the Swiss resort of St Moritz.
The previous oldest World Cup winner was Switzerland’s Didier Cuche at 37 in a men’s Super-G in 2012. Italy’s Federica Brignone was the oldest previous female winner at 34 last season.
“I knew I was skiing fast but you never know until the first race,” said Vonn, who retired in 2019 and began her comeback last year, after a tearful telephone call with her father.
“I was a little faster than I expected. I think I had a great run but I also made some mistakes so I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Vonn has another downhill on Saturday followed by a Super-G on Sunday.
Only compatriot Mikaela Shiffrin (104) and Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark (86) have won more Alpine World Cup races than Vonn, who can add to her tally before February’s Milano Cortina Games.
AUSTRIANS EGGER AND PUCHNER COMPLETE PODIUM
Starting 16th on the Corviglia piste in perfect conditions, Vonn was behind after the first two time checks but powered through to cross the line in one minute 29.63 seconds.
Collapsing in the snow at the inflatable safety barrier, the four-times overall World Cup champion got back up and whooped in delight as she thrust her ski poles in the air.
Austrians Magdalena Egger, second from a 27th start and born a year after Vonn made her World Cup debut, and Mirjam Puchner completed the podium.
Vonn’s return to competitive downhill skiing, the most dangerous of disciplines, after knee surgery had some former rivals questioning her sanity last year but she has turned that to her advantage.
“All the people who didn’t believe in me, I have to thank them, because it gives me a lot of motivation,” she said.
Vonn ended the season with a first podium in seven years when she finished second in the Super-G at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Friday was her 44th win in downhill, 21 years after her first in 2004, and it transformed her Olympic prospects.
From being an outside medal hope, Vonn now looks a real contender for gold after beating a string of far younger champions in her 409th start.
She could also extend her comeback to the end of the season, beyond Cortina.
“I thought I might retire after the last race of the Olympics, because I didn’t think I’d be competitive for a (World Cup) title, but I might need to change my approach,” she said.
The American was fastest in training on Wednesday, when she said she felt physically in possibly the best shape she had ever been and had gained muscle and strength.
“I still didn’t ski the best I could have on the compression on the bottom but I just tried to be dynamic, tried to be clean, the way I’ve been skiing in training and it was pretty solid,” she said on Friday.
“It’s a long weekend with three races. Yesterday was quite hard, I think I lost a lot of energy just hanging out for 30 minutes,” she said of a training interrupted by a heavy crash for Switzerland’s Olympic combined champion Michelle Gisin.
“I’m just going to try and get some sleep tonight, hopefully be ready for tomorrow,” she said. “I’m actually really excited for Super-G because I’m skiing better in Super-G than I am in downhill.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, Editing by Alison Williams and Toby Davis)
Comments