CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn wrapped up her second straight successful downhill training run Saturday and appears ready to go for gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics at the age of 41 on Sunday, little more than a week after rupturing the ACL of her left knee.
The American crossed in third position, 0.37 seconds behind leader and teammate Breezy Johnson, and pumped her fist after seeing the result.
“All good,” Vonn told The Associated Press.
Aksel Lund Svindal, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion from Norway who now coaches Vonn, said she was “very calm” after her run “and didn’t talk about the knee at all."
“And then I didn’t want to ask, either, because I figured that’s a good sign,” Svindal said. “When she’s calm means that she feels like she has it under control. She knows that she’ll have to push harder tomorrow because the rest of the girls will and it’s the Olympic downhill — you’re not going to get away with a medal there unless you push hard. I think she’s ready for that.”
Still, Vonn has been favoring her right leg while landing jumps during training, which has put her off balance at times.
“Try to have less of that tomorrow if we can,” Svindal said. “It’s the landings that hurt the most.”
Vonn is competing with a large brace covering her injured knee. She 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, raising the possibility that she would end not just her season but her career.
Instead, she has been steadfast in saying she would ski at the Olympics if at all possible and, after a training run was canceled Thursday, hit the Olympia delle Tofana downhill course on Friday and Saturday with the other racers. She placed 11th in Thursday's training, though the times mean little since the athletes do not always go their hardest.
Svindal noted that Vonn’s brace negatively affects her aerodynamics, but added, “We’re not focusing on that because if she starts to ask to take the brace away I think there’s a couple of doctors that would have something to say about that. Please don’t ask her that question.”
Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina.
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