Alpine skiing – Lindsey Vonn: The return of the speed queen

The award ceremony was long over, almost all of the competitors were on their way to the hotel. Only a young woman with two fur pompoms on her white knitted hat was still in the almost deserted finish area. She patiently answered the same questions, signed autographs and was ready to take her 100th selfie with a broad grin. She didn’t seem to want to leave at all.

Lindsey Vonn was the most sought-after ski racer on Saturday at the first of two planned Super-G races in St. Moritz (the second on Sunday had to be canceled due to poor weather conditions), more sought after than the three fastest, Cornelia Hütter from Austria, the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and Sofia Goggia from Italy. In the well-attended grandstand there were not only many Swiss flags to be seen, but also a few American flags – and posters designed especially for the comeback of the most successful ski racer after Mikaela Shiffrin: “Lindsey, you inspire us all”. Lindsey, you inspire us all, it said on one. On another: “We believe in you.”

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Vonn would probably have walked from microphone to microphone laughing and elated if her comeback hadn’t gone so smoothly. But after her six-year break, the American immediately showed that she can still compete with the world’s best. Vonn’s 14th place, 1.18 seconds behind winner Hütter, is also to be appreciated because the piste had already suffered a bit in some sections after 30 runners. After starting number 20, only a few athletes made it into the World Cup points, including Emma Aicher from SV Mahlstetten, who came sixteenth.

“That was just the beginning,” Vonn announced confidently after the race on Saturday, sounding almost like the ski racer she once was. Before her serious knee injury, the American had managed to explore the limits in the fast disciplines more perfectly than almost any other athlete. She achieved a total of 82 World Cup victories, 23 of which she even managed with a damaged knee.

But she is still some way away from that. “I have to be patient, even if that’s not my strength.” She had to learn to take a step back on the slopes as she worked on her comeback over the past few months. She succeeded perfectly in St. Moritz. She “went down comfortably” and “didn’t risk much,” explained Vonn. “My main goal today was to finish.” Soon that won’t be enough anymore. The competitors don’t have to get nervous yet, she said, “but I’m thinking in a few races.”

Anyone who saw Lindsey Vonn on the Corviglia this Saturday in bright sunshine would be inclined to say that she has arrived back where she had to say goodbye six years ago. Involuntarily, because the battered knee was no longer working. Unlike Maria Höfl-Riesch, for example, she did not choose the time to end her career herself, but her body determined it. That’s why it wasn’t finished yet in Are back in 2019. “Feeling this adrenaline, the speed, the risk again,” enthused Vonn, made her happy. »You never feel that in your life, only at the start of a Speed ​​World Cup.«

Since April she has had a partial replacement in her right knee, a titanium coating over the joint bone. This means she can not only walk and run again without any problems, but also ski at World Cup level again. The risk, explained the former team doctor of the German Ski Association, Ernst-Otto Münch, was not particularly great and the comeback was by no means irresponsible. The orthopedist and knee specialist from Garmisch-Partenkirchen saw the X-ray images of the operated knee through contacts with former colleagues.

Vonn’s operating doctors also had no concerns when she reported her comeback plans. Since she is pain-free, both when skiing and in everyday life, she no longer thinks about her knee. “For the first time since my first cruciate ligament tear in 2013,” she no longer has to do that, but can concentrate entirely on “how I should drive,” Vonn said happily. The fact that she is the oldest ski racer at 40 is more of a challenge than an obstacle for her: “Just because no one has tried it yet, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.” Lindsey Vonn is in the process of proving that age and serious injuries not protect you from sporting success.