Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Women's Super G - Saint Moritz, Switzerland - December 21, 2024 Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. reacts after her run REUTERS/Gintare Karpaviciute
ST MORITZ (Reuters) -American skiing great Lindsey Vonn marked her return to the World Cup circuit for the first time in nearly six years by finishing 14th fastest in the super-G at St Moritz, Switzerland, on Saturday.
Vonn, a three-times Olympic medallist and four-times overall World Cup champion with 82 wins, had walked away from the sport in 2019 after a bruising 18-year career where she suffered several injuries.
But last month she announced that she was coming out of retirement at the age 40 to rejoin the U.S. ski team having returned to training following a successful knee surgery earlier this year.
Vonn was the 31st skiier out the gate and she displayed the rhythm and flow of old that had made her the most successful super-G skier of all time with 28 World Cup wins.
But despite skiing on a slope she was very familiar with having won five times at St Moritz, she was well off the pace, finishing 1.18 seconds off leader Cornelia Huetter of Austria who set a time of one minute and 15.18 seconds.
"I felt really good, there's definitely a lot I have left to give. I really wanted to get to the finish today and be solid. I didn't want to risk too much, today was not the day to do anything special," Vonn told Eurosport.
"It feels so good to have the nerves, to have the butterflies, to have the adrenaline, and to push yourself. I always feel it's me against the mountain and I love that feeling.
"In ski racing, there's no limit to what you can push yourself to. I think this is the perfect start and I look forward to trying to improve every race."
Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami was second-fastest (0.18 seconds behind), while Italian Sofia Goggia was third (0.33).
Huetter had also claimed the first ever women's World Cup downhill event held on the formidable Birds of Prey course on Saturday in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last week.
"Winning is not really that common for me, it's not everyday business. So I think I will enjoy it today," said Huetter, the first Austrian since Michaela Dorfmeister in 2006 to win at St Moritz.
However, Vonn was all smiles after crossing the finish line as she soaked in the applause from the crowd. She was then busy relaying details of the course through a radio to her compatriots yet to race.
Vonn said last week that she felt stronger than she did in her late 20s, especially after having bone in her knee replaced with titanium which allowed her to straighten her right leg completely for the first time in years.
Vonn will return for a second super-G at St Moritz on Sunday.
"It was nice to feel the nerves again and to be in the start again, but tomorrow will be better because now I'm used to it," Vonn added.
"I think the first one is the hardest because you just have to jump in, you have to dive in."
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
