Lindsey Vonn eager for her return to World Cup ski races next weekend in Switzerland at age 40

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Lindsey Vonn now has a firm target for her return to World Cup ski racing at age 40: next weekend for a pair of super-G events in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

She has a goal, too, and it's not showing up at the starting gate simply to show up.

“You know me well enough to know that success is not just participating,” Vonn said at a news conference Friday night. “I know my way back to a competitive level might take a race or two, but I certainly intend on getting back to where I was before.”

Where she was before was on the podium. Her last major race was February 2019, when she took third in the downhill during the world championships in Sweden.

“For me, when I’m focused on something, I have no problem working 110 percent to get to my goal, and that’s what it takes,” Vonn said. “I don’t just whimsically rejoin the U.S. Ski Team.

"I never stopped believing in myself. I never have my whole life — and I’m not going to stop now.”

Vonn teased her return to World Cup racing early Friday in an Instagram post through her sponsor, Red Bull. She said, “My body is finally put back together. I hear St. Moritz is pretty nice this time of year.”

She's had plenty of success in St. Moritz, too, winning five of her 82 World Cup races at the venue. There will be super-G competitions next Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s the coolest thing ever,” said Picabo Street, a two-time Olympic medalist and Vonn's former teammate. “I’m not surprised at all. I’ve seen her intermittently and she’s stayed in great shape. She is the hardest-working person I’ve met in my life — period.”

An assortment of injuries, including to her knee, sent Vonn into retirement. But a partial knee replacement last April has her feeling good enough again to give racing another chance.

“I’m lucky that I have this second chance where I am physically, I feel like, as I was before,” Vonn said. “I know what I’m capable of if my body is cooperating. And thankfully that titanium piece (part of the new knee) is really working out well.”

Vonn earned enough points to be eligible to compete on the World Cup circuit through a series of lower-level competitions last weekend in Copper Mountain, Colorado. She’s been testing out the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek as a forerunner in training runs this week. She didn't take the hill Friday, but will again in a forerunning capacity ahead of the downhill on Saturday and the super-G on Sunday.

“She’s living her best life," said Street, who's doing commentary work at the Birds of Prey races this weekend for NBC. “She’s earned every second of it.”

When Vonn left the tour, she had 82 World Cup wins — the record for a woman at the time and within reach of the all-time Alpine mark of 86 held by Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark. The women’s record held by Vonn was eclipsed in January 2023 by Mikaela Shiffrin, whose 99 wins are more than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport.

“It’s awesome” to have Vonn back, said Czech ski racer and snowboarder Ester Ledecka, who won the 2018 Olympic super-G in South Korea as Vonn finished tied for sixth. “It was for me a little bit sad to see her finishing her career. I thought, ‘Hey, you should finish it when you want to, not because your body is not capable to let you do your runs.’ I’m very happy that she’s back and she’s feeling good and she’s happy.

“I think she’ll be also very fast. So, I’m very happy to have her around.”

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Pat Graham, The Associated Press