ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — (AP) — Maybe it was nerves for her first World Cup race back in nearly six years. Maybe it was a bumpier course than she's used to racing on. Maybe it was some wrong lines or angles.
Whatever it was, Lindsey Vonn took just a handful of gates this weekend to recover from a poor start and rediscover her former speed when she placed 14th in a super-G.
The 40-year-old Vonn lost time at the start of the race but then was competitive with the top-five finishers the rest of the way down.
“It took her 20 seconds to get back into it, and then she was fine,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal coach, told The Associated Press on Sunday as he looked back to Saturday's race.
Since Vonn hadn’t raced in so long, the American had to use the new wild card rule for former champions that enabled her to start No. 31. But that’s still long after the top-ranked skiers start, leaving her with a bumpier and more challenging course.
“If we can get around those other girls on the same track in the same conditions then you really know what’s going on,” Knight said.
Still, Vonn was the only finisher with a bib higher than 20 to finish in the top 15.
It was a memorable moment for the second-most successful woman in World Cup history — and skiing in general.
“The coaches at the start said you could hear a pin drop when she was in the gate ready to go,” Knight said. “Everybody was watching. I mean, that’s a big deal.”
Vonn lost a chance to improve her ranking and start position when the second race of her World Cup comeback, another super-G, was canceled on Sunday because of strong winds and poor visibility in St. Moritz.
“She’d like to be in the top 15 later in the season,” Knight said. “What we’re aiming for the next races is to accumulate points and get a better start number around the girls who are competitive.”
Viktoria Rebensburg, the German skier who won the giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and who has been retired for nearly five years, doesn’t think she’d be anywhere close as competitive as Vonn was if she came back — even though she's five years younger than Vonn.
“I cannot imagine for myself to come back and to really push myself and go to the limit again,” Rebensburg said. “That’s something probably just Lindsey is able to do.”
“She worked for it. She was training really hard the last couple of months. I think she never really stopped to train, which is good to keep also the physical level,” added Rebensburg. “She has this special feeling for the long turns, for the speed in general. And she will not lose that.”
Rebensburg said that most Europeans wouldn’t even contemplate racing at age 40.
“That’s what I like about the American approach, the thinking is like nothing is impossible,” she said. “(If) she feels this is her path then she should follow that path.”
Vonn now won’t race again until the next speed weekend in St. Anton, Austria on Jan. 11-12, featuring a downhill and a super-G.
After St. Anton, she plans to compete in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and hopefully qualify for the world championships in Saalbach, Austria, in February.
For now, Vonn is heading home to the U.S. for the holidays. Then she will return to Europe for training at Passo San Pellegrino in Italy in early January before resuming a near-full schedule of speed races.
“That’ll give us some good information because all the teams try and go there," Knight said. "The Italians will be there. The Austrians sometimes come. The Americans will be there. You see a lot of teams come and train in that block. So if you train with other people, we'll get some information there, too. We’ve definitely got to do some more work with the equipment.”
Last week, Vonn hit back at critics in the skiing community who had suggested she was “crazy” to come back at such an advanced age.
The critiques from several former champion skiers from Switzerland and Austria provided perfect bulletin board material for her coach. Although it was actually Vonn — who speaks fluent German — who found the material.
“She does it herself. I don’t even need to," Knight said. “It’s nice to see how much that motivates her.”
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