Lindsey Vonn concluded her comeback season at the age of 40 with a second-place finish in a World Cup super-G race Sunday that was won by Swiss standout Lara Gut-Behrami.
Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. The American pumped her poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the crowd roared in approval. Vonn becomes the oldest female Alpine ski racer to step on the podium of a World Cup race – by six years.
“As much as I love skiing, it’s been a hard road,” Vonn said after the race. “I just continue to prove that anything is possible. I’ve been knocked down so many times in my life personally, physically, mentally, beat down and I always pick myself back up. It’s not always easy.
“It’s actually really hard work. But that’s what it takes, putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the hard days. When you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it leads you to a place like today.”
It was Vonn’s first World Cup podium spot since March 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement. “Call me naive, but I believe in the impossible,” she said when first announcing her comeback.
It was Vonn’s 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria.
Vonn says she hopes to race for Team USA at next year’s Winter Olympics before retiring for good. “It’s been a rough season of people saying that I can’t, that I’m too old, that I’m not good enough anymore. I think I proved everyone wrong,” Vonn, who has three Olympic medals to her name, said on Sunday.
Gut-Behrami finished in a time of one minute and 12.35 seconds – edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds – to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Italian racer Federica Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday’s race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind the time of Gut-Behrami.
The final season-long super-G standings ended up with Gut-Behrami in first, Brignone in second and Sofia Goggia of Italy in third.
“She’s Lindsey Vonn,” Brignone said. “She’s not somebody coming back from another injury. She has qualities and she’s an amazing champion. Today, she put all the pieces [together] and did an amazing race.”
On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall title.
