ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) — How fast can she go on her titanium knee? And how competitive will she be?
Those are the big questions surrounding Lindsey Vonn’s comeback to World Cup ski racing this weekend at age 40 after nearly six years of retirement.
“It’s a question that’s been going through my head a lot over the last week,” said Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal coach. “She’s not far away.”
Vonn is slated to race super-Gs on Saturday and Sunday in St. Moritz.
While Vonn has won a record 28 World Cup super-Gs, including three at the Swiss resort, calculating her current potential is not an exact science.
During two lower-level FIS super-G races in Copper Mountain, Colorado, two weeks ago, she finished 24th and 19th. Although not too much should be read into those results, because Vonn’s main goal was just completing the race with a half-decent time to gain the necessary qualifying points to return to the World Cup — which she accomplished.
Wind and starting positions are usually big factors in St. Moritz
Under a new wild card rule for former champions, Vonn will start after the top 30 ranked racers complete their runs — with No. 31.
The Engiadina course in St. Moritz is entirely above the tree line, which makes it susceptible to strong and sudden gusts of wind.
“Maybe starting No. 31 won’t be so bad with those long flats at the top, to get some of that fresh snow off the track. Speed it up a little bit,” Knight said.
Sun is forecast for Saturday, with overcast conditions and possibly some snow on Sunday.
By the time Vonn comes down, Goggia, Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami and the other top racers will have already raced.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who shares the record of five wins in St. Moritz across all disciplines with Vonn, isn’t racing this weekend as she recovers from abdominal surgery to clean out a puncture wound she sustained in a crash last month.
Vonn left the tour with 82 World Cup wins — the record for a woman at the time and within reach of the then all-time Alpine mark of 86 held by Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark. The women’s record held by Vonn was eclipsed in January 2023 by Shiffrin, who now has an outright record 99 wins.
