Lindsey Vonn’s expectations have shifted so dramatically during her Olympic comeback that even a podium finish now comes with a sense of frustration.
The 41-year-old American finished third in Saturday’s women’s World Cup downhill at Val d’Isère, France, extending a blistering start to the season that has already included a victory and a runner-up finish in the space of nine days. But after a small mistake on the lower section of the course cost her valuable time, Vonn left the finish area convinced she had let a potential win slip away.
Austria’s Cornelia Huetter produced the cleanest run of the day to claim her first World Cup victory of the season, clocking 1:41.54 on the Oreiller-Killy course. Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann finished second, 0.26sec back, while Vonn crossed the line 0.35sec behind the winner.
Racing in challenging, flat-light conditions, Vonn briefly lost her balance after misjudging the terrain near the bottom of the course, a moment she estimated cost her roughly half a second. Moments earlier, she had thrown her arms wide in disbelief when her split time fell behind Weidle-Winkelmann’s early benchmark.
“If you had asked me last year if I’d be happy with a podium, I would have said absolutely,” Vonn said afterward. “But now I know I’m fast. When you make little mistakes, that’s the difference between winning and not.”
The result still marked Vonn’s third podium in four World Cup races this winter and the 141st of her career, an astonishing tally for an athlete who returned to competition last season after nearly six years of retirement. One year ago, she failed to reach the podium in her first 12 races back on tour; now she leads the season-long downhill standings with 240 points.
Huetter, the defending downhill crystal globe winner, was consistently quicker than Vonn after the opening split and reached speeds of 126kph (78mph) as she secured the 10th World Cup win of her career. The 33-year-old Austrian now owns five downhill victories and is emerging as a leading contender for the Olympic downhill title in Cortina d’Ampezzo, scheduled for 8 February.
Italy’s Sofia Goggia, widely viewed as Huetter’s biggest threat, endured a costly error. Fastest at the halfway mark, the 2018 Olympic champion was forced nearly upright while correcting her balance exiting a turn and skidded into rough snow, finishing eighth, 0.62sec off the lead.
For Vonn, the broader picture remains overwhelmingly positive. Since fitting a titanium implant in her right knee, she has rediscovered both speed and belief, capped by her first World Cup win in seven years last weekend at St Moritz. With fewer than seven weeks until the Milan-Cortina Winter Games begin on 6 February, she believes her trajectory is exactly where it needs to be.
“I’m looking forward to recharging a bit,” Vonn said. “I know I’ll be ready.”
Val d’Isère concludes its women’s program on Sunday with a super-G before the World Cup circuit pauses for the holidays, with the next speed races scheduled for January in Altenmarkt, Austria.
