Lindsey Vonn is again on the rostrum on Saturday after a World Cup downhill race that’s separated by a razor-thin margin of 0.24 seconds.
Someday after becoming the oldest winner of a World Cup downhill, the 41-year-old American completed second in a race on Saturday in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
After successful the season’s opening downhill by almost a full second on Friday, Vonn was crushed by just one racer this time: Emma Aicher of Germany was 0.24 seconds sooner.
Vonn attributed a mistake to touchdown a bounce halfway down her run for the hole, when she almost misplaced her stability for an immediate and leaned closely on her left leg to get again up.
“I am just a little bit drained from yesterday, there was numerous emotion,” Vonn advised Swiss broadcaster RTS. “I assumed I skied fairly properly on high, then I used to be simply out of stability, I fell on my hip. Yeah, did not ski the underside the best way I wished to.”
Gabriele Facciotti / AP
Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion from Italy, completed third, 0.29 behind, and Breezy Johnson, the American world champion, was fourth, 0.40 again.
Vonn, who’s making ready for the Milan Cortina Olympics, went into first place along with her run down the sun-drenched Corviglia course. However the 22-year-old Aicher got here down subsequent and rapidly pushed Vonn out of the chief’s seat.
Vonn returned to snowboarding last season after nearly six years of retirement — following a partial substitute surgical procedure on her proper knee, which included inserting two items of titanium.
The three-time Olympic medalist told CBS Sunday Morning in March that she “by no means thought” she can be speaking about going to the Olympics once more. Simply speaking about heading to Italy means she is “already successful,” she stated.
“I might be at an obstacle,” Vonn stated. “I’m 40, and at the moment subsequent 12 months I might be 41. However I do know my snowboarding is there. I believe I am truly snowboarding higher now than I used to be previous few years of my profession.”
Vonn’s outcomes are shaping as much as make her a high medal contender on the Olympics — and in a position to compete with skiers half her age. Ladies’s Alpine snowboarding on the Feb. 6-22 Winter Video games might be contested at Cortina d’Ampezzo, the place Vonn holds the document of 12 World Cup wins.
Vonn registered the highest pace of 64 mph on the highest part; elevated her pace to 68 mph on the backside and flew a large 41 yards off a bounce towards the tip of her run
Vonn additionally clocked the quickest time within the closing sector — an indication of her elevated health this season. She stated earlier this week that she added 12 kilos of muscle throughout dry-land coaching over the summer time and adopted a inflexible eating regimen.
When Vonn crossed the end line and noticed that she was forward of Goggia, Vonn celebrated, considering that she had received. She set free a scream, punched the air with considered one of her poles after which raised her arms over her head, shaking her head in obvious disbelief.
It was Vonn’s a hundred and fortieth podium consequence and it got here in a record-breaking 410th World Cup race. Former Austrian skier Renate Götschl held the earlier document with 409 races.
It was Aicher’s third World Cup victory and second in downhill. She’s a uncommon all-around skier able to being aggressive in all 4 disciplines — like Vonn on the top of her profession.
Aicher additionally completed on the rostrum in a slalom this season, inserting third in Levi, Finland.
Vonn might goal for an additional victory in a super-G in St. Moritz on Sunday — in a race that fellow American standout Mikaela Shiffrin can also be anticipated to compete in.
Shiffrin has not been racing downhill.
