Just about six years later her departure, American alpine snowboarding legend Lindsey Vonn returned to pageant Saturday in a couple of downhill races in Copper Mountain, Colo.
The 40-year-old Vonn completed twenty fourth and twenty seventh, respectively, out of 45 skiers within the FIS Fall Pageant runs. The development is a degree beneath the top-tier International Cup circuit however featured a number of summit skiers who had been coaching for nearest weekend’s International Cup match in the similar venue.
Vonn introduced terminating date she meant to assemble a comeback virtually six years later her departure following the International Championships in February 2019. A knee trauma ended her profession next, however she had the knee changed previous this 12 months and located herself pain-free, sparking the theory of a comeback.
She’s hoping to compete once more in International Cup races and, if she will defy odds and regain one thing like her aging mode, probably the 2026 Olympics. The ladies’s alpine snowboarding pageant might be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the place Vonn has logged 12 International Cup victories in her profession.
“I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through,” Vonn instructed the Untouched York Instances terminating date, including that she “can’t say right now if it’s a possibility” to compete in Cortina.
Saturday was once her first step again. In an Instagram put up Friday, she referred to as this weekend’s races a “training opportunity to keep on building” and mentioned, “100% will come in time but not tomorrow.”
Vonn’s past of one:07.23 within the first run was once 1.44 seconds off the month of the winner, Austria’s Mirjam Puchner, the silver medalist within the Tremendous-G on the 2022 Beijing Olympics. In the second one race, she completed in 1:07.52, 1.53 seconds in the back of winner Cornelia Huetter of Austria, the protecting International Cup downhill champion.
Vonn may be anticipated to compete in Sunday’s Tremendous-G races. Her plans past that experience no longer been introduced. Vonn hopes to importance the lower-level FIS races to achieve the essential rating issues to go into International Cup occasions.
When she retired, Vonn was once probably the most a hit American International Cup skier of all past, with 82 particular person match wins. That was once 2d to Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark for probably the most all past in alpine snowboarding. On the past, a 24-year-old American named Mikaela Shiffrin sat neatly in the back of her with 56 victories. However since, Shiffrin — who was once injured terminating moment in a International Cup match in Vermont — has reeled off 43 extra International Cup match wins to reset the file and sit down one shy of the 100 mark.
Vonn was once a member of 4 U.S. Olympic groups between 2002 and 2018, profitable 3 medals, together with gold within the downhill in Vancouver in 2010. However knee accidents recurred during her profession and saved her out of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
However along with her knee unfastened of woe and a fresh alternative, Vonn is again to look the place all of it is going, most likely to a impossible Olympic bid.
“It’s been 6 years since I last raced so I still have a lot of equipment to test, finding my groove and really getting into racing form,” she mentioned in her Instagram put up. “I am having a lot of fun and want to keep on doing so!”
Indistinguishable studying
(Picture: John Locher / AP)
