By ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — A week after rupturing the ACL in her left knee, Lindsey Vonn opened her chase for Olympic gold at the age of 41 with an aggressive and successful downhill training run on Friday — two days before the race.
Vonn got tight with her line midway down and only narrowly cleared a gate but she led at the final checkpoints, then stood up out of her tuck before the finish and placed 11th as skiers got their first official turns on the Olympia delle Tofane course ahead of the big race.
“She was smart. She didn’t go all in,” said Aksel Lund Svindal, a former Olympic downhill champion from Norway and now one of Vonn’s personal coaches. “She made a mistake on the bottom, but the rest looked like just good skiing, but no big risk. And to me it looked symmetrical.”
At the finish, Vonn traded fist pumps and a hug with teammate Breezy Johnson, who came down immediately before her and placed sixth, after a nearly hour-long delay because of fog.
“Yep,” Vonn told The Associated Press when asked if the run went well. She did not stop to talk further with reporters, leaving for more rehab on her knee.
Vonn is skiing at the Milan Cortina Games with a large brace covering her knee. She has been clear since her crash last week in Switzerland that she would go forward despite an injury that many athletes would consider a season- or even a career-ender.
“Nothing makes me happier! No one would have believed I would be here,” Vonn wrote on social media before her run. “But I made it!! I’m here, I’m smiling and no matter what, I know how lucky I am. I’m not going to waste this chance. Let’s go get it!!”
Vonn finished 1.39 seconds behind American teammate Jacqueline Wiles, who posted the fastest time and is also a medal threat with two career podium results in Cortina.
Considering her injury and what she showed in training, can Vonn contend for a medal?
“I think she can because there was reserves today,” Svindal said. “You’ve seen earlier this season when she skis well she can win and from what I saw today I think she can. It’s going to be hard but I think she could possibly bring that on Sunday.”
Vonn had a partial titanium replacement inserted in her right knee in 2024 and then returned to ski racing last season after nearly six years of retirement. She crashed during the final World Cup downhill before the Olympics in Crans-Montana last Friday. She was airlifted off the course only to post on social media later that day: “My Olympic dream is not over.”
“We’re all positive, but she’s awesome,” Svindal said of Vonn’s mindset after her the crash. “She was the first one to say that, ‘This is happening, we’re racing.'”
With Thursday’s opening training session canceled due to heavy snowfall, there was one session remaining, on Saturday, before Sunday’s downhill race. Vonn has not decided yet if she will take part in Saturday’s training, Svindal said. But now that she has started one session, she doesn’t need another to be eligible to race.
Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina.
“This felt like race day to me because it’s very important,” Svindal said. “How she feels today is the confidence that will let her decide how hard she can go. … You know her history. She’s gone hard at times when people have told her she shouldn’t probably be in the start even, so I have no doubt that she will go hard at the start and attack on Sunday.”
Svindal said he was more nervous than Vonn during the training session.
“Because this is important for everyone, everyone, right? If this works, it’s awesome. If something happens, it will be bad,” he said. “But she’s been very committed since the first day, and she’s convinced this will work.”
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics