Lindsey Vonn takes 13th in World Cup Super-G day after skiing out of downhill
After two straight DNFs, Lindsey Vonn was looking to get back to the finish line and put her comeback to alpine skiing back on track. On Sunday, the American star, returning to the sport at age 40, finished 13th in the World Cup Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, her highest finish since barely missing a podium in Austria two weeks ago.
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Vonn ran top-15 splits throughout and was top-7 in the opening and closing sectors to finish 1.40 seconds behind winner Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, who earned her 46th career World Cup victory. Norway's Kajsa Vickhoff Lie took second and Italy's Federica Brignone finished third.
Two Americans finished above Vonn, as Keely Cashman posted a strong sixth-place run for her best finish ever in a World Cup race, and Lauren Macuga took 12th.
On Saturday, the U.S. team put three skiers in the top 11 in the World Cup downhill. But Vonn, the three-time Olympic medalist who hopes to qualify for the 2026 Games, had her second straight did-not-finish when she was kicked out of position around a turn and skied out with seven gates to go.
Breezy Johnson took fourth, just six-hundredths of a second away from her first podium since December 2021. She missed most of the last three years with injury and then a 14-month ban for violations of anti-doping whereabouts rules. Macuga — who won a Super-G race two weeks ago for her first World Cup victory — finished sixth and Jacqueline Wiles 11th.
Brignone topped the field in 1:35.83, with Italian teammate Sofia Goggia just 0.01 behind in second. Switzerland's Corinne Suter took third.
Vonn wasn't the only U.S. skier to struggle on the Garmisch-Partenkirchen track as Isabella Wright and Tricia Mangan both suffered hard falls Saturday. Wright missed Sunday's race after sustaining an injury. In total, 17 skiers did not finish across the two days.
Sunday's Super-G was the last World Cup speed event before the world championships begin Feb. 4 in Saalbach, Austria.
Saturday marked Vonn's first race since she crashed out during a Super-G run in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, last Sunday. Before the fall about two-thirds through the track, Vonn was keeping a pace that would've contended for a podium spot. A day earlier, she took 20th in the downhill on the Olympia delle Tofane slope that will host the 2026 Olympics.
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The string of results in Italy and Germany were Vonn's worst since returning to the World Cup circuit. She finished 14th in the Super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec. 21 in her first World Cup race in nearly six years, then took sixth in the downhill and fourth in the Super-G in St. Anton, Austria, earlier this month.
After retiring in 2019 due to persistent injuries, Vonn got a knee replacement in 2024 that paved the way for her return to the sport. She announced her plans to return in November, rejoined the World Cup tour in December and immediately found success with results that put her among the top American finishers each week.
If Vonn can get back to those strong performances, she could be in line to make the Olympic team next February. She told the Associated Press last week that the Milan-Cortina Games 'would be a great way to end' this second chapter of her career.
Vonn was a member of the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2018 U.S. Olympic teams, winning three medals — including gold in the downhill in Vancouver in 2010.
But in a knee-wrecking sport, the injuries piled up. She missed the 2014 Olympics with a knee injury and by the 2018-19 World Cup season, she was talking of retirement. A frustrating weekend in Cortina in January 2019 was her final World Cup race until last month. She retired a few weeks later, after the 2019 world championships.
When she retired, Vonn was the winningest women's World Cup alpine skier in history with 82 race wins to go with four overall World Cup titles. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin has since passed her and will resume her pursuit of a historic 100th World Cup win Thursday in Courchevel, France, after missing the past two months with an injury.
(Top photo of Lindsey Vonn smiling after Sunday's Super-G race: Angelika Warmuth / picture alliance via Getty Images)
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