At 41, Lindsey Vonn is no longer defying expectations so much as resetting them. One day after becoming the oldest woman to win a World Cup race, the American came within a quarter-second of doing it again, finishing second in Saturday’s downhill at St Moritz behind Germany’s Emma Aicher.
Less than 24 hours after rewriting the World Cup age record, Vonn briefly looked on course for another victory as she surged ahead of Italy’s Sofia Goggia on the sunlit Corviglia course. But Aicher, skiing immediately after her, attacked the increasingly rutted track and edged Vonn by 0.24 seconds to deny her a rare opening-weekend double.
Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, finished third, 0.29 seconds behind Aicher, while American world champion Breezy Johnson placed fourth, 0.40 back.
The difference for Vonn came midway down the course, where she landed awkwardly off a jump and was forced into a sharp correction after losing her balance. The mistake disrupted her rhythm and cost speed on the lower section, where she had been dominant a day earlier.
“I skied pretty well, but I was a little bit out of balance today,” Vonn said. “Yesterday was so emotional it took a lot of energy, and I didn’t sleep that great. I know I can be better.”
Even so, the result reinforced the scale of Vonn’s resurgence since returning to the World Cup last season after nearly six years away from the sport and a partial knee replacement that left her racing with titanium implants in her right leg. She once again posted some of the fastest speeds in the field and remains atop the downhill standings after two races.
For Aicher, the victory was her third World Cup win and second in downhill, further establishing the 22-year-old as one of the tour’s most versatile skiers. She has already reached the podium in slalom this season, underscoring her all-around credentials.
The St Moritz weekend concludes with a super-G on Sunday, where Vonn is expected to line up alongside teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, who surpassed her as the most successful women’s World Cup skier of all time in 2023. With the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on the horizon, Vonn’s back-to-back podiums have quickly transformed her comeback from curiosity into genuine medal contention.
