ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — Lindsey Vonn once again demonstrated on Saturday that she is the best downhill runner of this Olympic season.
Vonn won her second Downhill World Cup in four races this season, raising expectations on her remarkable comeback at age 41 with her right knee reconstructed using titanium implants.
The American star was 0.37 seconds faster than Kajsa Vickhoff Lie in difficult and overcast conditions. Vonn was jumping and applauding in the leaders’ box as teammate Jacqueline Wiles took third place, 0.48 behind.
On a shortened course that took her less than 67 seconds, Vonn still clocked 81 mph, one of the fastest speeds a women’s runner will achieve this season.
“I knew what it would take to win today,” she said. “It was a sprint, and I had to give it my all, I definitely had to take a little risk.”
Vonn crossed the finish line with an air of determined satisfaction, punching the air with her right fist and nodding with short, sharp movements of her head.
With each victory, Vonn extends his record as the oldest race winner in the 60-season history of the World Cup circuit. His 84th career victory on the tour was his record 45th downhill race.
The American star then had a family video call alongside her coach Aksel Lund Svindal, the men’s downhill champion at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, where Vonn won women’s bronze.
Vonn was Olympic downhill champion at the 2010 Vancouver Games and appears to be a strong contender for the next gold medal race, scheduled for Feb. 8 at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The race will take place at the famous Cortina d’Ampezzo track, where Vonn excelled in her career.
Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion, was 17th on Saturday, behind Vonn by 0.97. Reigning Olympic champion Corinne Suter made her season debut after injuries and was more than a second slower than Vonn.
The U.S. team had five riders in the top 20 with world champion Breezy Johnson seventh, 21-year-old Allison Mollin a career-best 14th and Keely Cashman tied for 18th, less than a second behind Vonn.
The race was delayed 25 minutes while Austrian hopeful Magdalena Egger was airlifted from the course after a season-ending fall and crashed into the safety nets. She got up with a bloody nose and subsequent examinations showed significant damage to her right knee, including a torn ACL, the Austrian ski federation said. Egger finished second in Vonn’s season-opening downhill victory last month in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Vonn increased her lead in the season’s Downhill World Cup standings, after finishing second and third in the other races. Saturday’s race was the fourth of nine scheduled World Cup descents this season.
She collected 100 points in the race and now leads by 129 over Germany’s Emma Aicher, who placed sixth on Saturday. Vonn is aiming for a ninth downhill World Cup title, 10 years after her eighth, when she also won at Zauchensee.
“I felt like I was skiing better in super-G this summer,” she said, “but when I got to the races in St Moritz, everything was working really well from the start.”
On Sunday, Vonn will start a super-G which should be on a longer course than the downhill.
