Vonn ‘won’t waste chance,’ trains on injured knee

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — A week after rupturing the ACL in her left knee, Lindsey Vonn opened her lag for Olympic gold at the age of 41 with an aggressive and a hit downhill coaching speed Friday, two days before the speed.

Vonn purchased tight with her line midway down and most efficient narrowly cleared a gate, nonetheless she led at the final checkpoints then stood up out of her tuck before the enact and positioned 11th as skiers purchased their first legitimate turns on the Olympia delle Tofane direction outdated to the huge speed.

“She was smart. She didn’t go all-in,” acknowledged Aksel Lund Svindal, a ragged Olympic downhill champion from Norway and now one amongst Vonn’s personal coaches. “She made a mistake on the bottom, but the rest looked like just good skiing, but no big risk. And to me it looked symmetrical.”

On the enact, Vonn traded fist pumps and a hug with teammate Breezy Johnson, who got here down ninth, lawful before her, after a virtually about hourlong lengthen thanks to fog.

“Yep,” Vonn advised The Connected Press when requested if the speed went neatly. She did not stop to talk extra with reporters, leaving for extra rehab on her knee.

Vonn is skiing at the Milan Cortina Video games with a indispensable brace retaining her knee. She has been sure since her fracture final week in Switzerland that she would hurry ahead despite an injury that many athletes would rob into story a season- or even a occupation-ender.

“Nothing makes me happier! No one would have believed I would be here,” Vonn wrote on social media before her speed. “But I made it!! I’m here, I’m smiling and no matter what, I know how lucky I am. I’m not going to waste this chance. Let’s go get it!!”

She moreover took effort with somebody questioning the predominant points of her injury.

“My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday. Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” she wrote in a reply on X. “And yes, my ACL is 100% ruptured. Not 80% or 50%. It’s 100% gone.”

Vonn finished 1.39 seconds within the abet of American teammate Jacqueline Wiles, who posted the fastest time and is moreover a medal threat with two occupation podium ends up in Cortina.

Brooding about her injury and what she confirmed in coaching, can Vonn contend for a medal?

“I think she can because there was reserves today,” Svindal acknowledged. “You’ve seen earlier this season when she skis well she can win, and from what I saw today, I think she can. It’s going to be hard, but I think she could possibly bring that on Sunday.”

Vonn had a partial titanium replace inserted in her appropriate knee in 2024 and returned to ski racing final season after virtually about six years of retirement. She crashed all the plan in which via the final World Cup downhill before the Olympics in Crans-Montana final Friday. She became once airlifted off the direction most efficient to post on social media later that day: “My Olympic dream is not over.”

“We’re all positive, but she’s awesome,” Svindal acknowledged of Vonn’s mindset after her fracture. “She was the first one to say that, ‘This is happening, we’re racing.'”

Thursday’s opening coaching session became once canceled thanks to heavy snowstorm, and there became once one session final, on Saturday, before Sunday’s downhill speed. Vonn has no longer made up our minds if she’s going to rob piece in Saturday’s coaching, Svindal acknowledged. But now that she has started one session, she doesn’t want one other to be eligible to speed.

Vonn holds the file of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina.

“This felt like race day to me because it’s very important,” Svindal acknowledged. “How she feels today is the confidence that will let her decide how hard she can go. … You know her history. She’s gone hard at times when people have told her she shouldn’t probably be in the start even, so I have no doubt that she will go hard at the start and attack on Sunday.”

Svindal acknowledged he became once extra anxious than Vonn all the plan in which via the coaching session.

“Because this is important for everyone, everyone, right? If this works, it’s awesome. If something happens, it will be bad,” he acknowledged. “But she’s been very committed since the first day, and she’s convinced this will work.”