ST MORITZ, SWITZERLAND:
American snowboarding nice Lindsey Vonn marked her return to the World Cup circuit for the primary time in practically six years by ending 14th quickest within the super-G at St Moritz, Switzerland, on Saturday.
Vonn, a three-times Olympic medallist and four-times general World Cup champion with 82 wins, had walked away from the game in 2019 after a bruising 18-year profession the place she suffered a number of accidents.
However final month she introduced that she was popping out of retirement on the age 40 to rejoin the U.S. ski group having returned to coaching following a profitable knee surgical procedure earlier this yr.
Vonn was the thirty first skiier out the gate and he or she displayed the rhythm and circulate of outdated that had made her probably the most profitable super-G skier of all time with 28 World Cup wins.
However regardless of snowboarding on a slope she was very accustomed to having received 5 instances at St Moritz, she was properly off the tempo, ending 1.18 seconds off chief Cornelia Huetter of Austria who set a time of 1 minute and 15.18 seconds.
“I felt actually good, there’s positively lots I’ve left to present. I actually wished to get to the end in the present day and be stable. I did not need to danger an excessive amount of, in the present day was not the day to do something particular,” Vonn instructed Eurosport. “It feels so good to have the nerves, to have the butterflies, to have the adrenaline, and to push your self. I all the time really feel it is me in opposition to the mountain and I really like that feeling.
“In ski racing, there isn’t any restrict to what you possibly can push your self to. I believe that is the proper begin and I stay up for attempting to enhance each race.” Switzerland’s Lara Intestine-Behrami was second-fastest (0.18 seconds behind), whereas Italian Sofia Goggia was third (0.33). Huetter had additionally claimed the primary ever girls’s World Cup downhill occasion held on the formidable Birds of Prey course on Saturday in Beaver Creek, Colorado, final week.
“Profitable isn’t actually that widespread for me, it isn’t on a regular basis enterprise. So I believe I’ll get pleasure from it in the present day,” mentioned Huetter, the primary Austrian since Michaela Dorfmeister in 2006 to win at St Moritz.
Nonetheless, Vonn was all smiles after crossing the end line as she soaked within the applause from the group. She was then busy relaying particulars of the course via a radio to her compatriots but to race.
Vonn mentioned final week that she felt stronger than she did in her late 20s, particularly after having bone in her knee changed with titanium which allowed her to straighten her proper leg utterly for the primary time in years. Vonn will return for a second super-G at St Moritz on Sunday. REUTERS