Vonn is back in the Olympic start gate
American star Lindsay completed her second successful training run Saturday in Cortina d’Ampezzo and appears ready to race just a little more than a week after tearing her ACL when she crashed during her final competition before the Olympics.
Skiing with a brace on her injured left knee, the 41-year-old clocked the third-fastest time in the final training session. More than half the field did not participate, though, including Canadians Val Grenier and Cassidy Gray.
Vonn, who won Olympic downhill gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, owned the all-time record for women’s alpine World Cup wins when she retired from the sport in 2019 — her body cooked from countless injuries over the years.
But equipped with a new titanium-infused right knee, she returned in 2024 and this season re-established herself as a top contender for Olympic gold in Cortina. The same course where she’s won a record 12 World Cup races.
Before her crash in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Jan. 30, Vonn had reached the podium in seven of her eight starts this season, including a pair of downhill victories to become the oldest skier ever to win an alpine World Cup race.
She’s wearing bib No. 13 in the start list today.