Lindsey Vonn, 40, finishes 14th in first World Cup race in nearly six years | Skiing

Lindsey Vonn finished 14th position in a super-G on Saturday to mark her return to World Cup skiing at age 40. Vonn crossed the line 1.18 seconds behind winner Cornelia Huetter.

It was the American standout’s first World Cup race after nearly six years of retirement. Vonn is planning to race another super-G in St Moritz on Sunday.

“I felt really good, there’s definitely a lot I have left to give. I really wanted to get to the finish today and be solid. I didn’t want to risk too much, today was not the day to do anything special,” she told Eurosport.

“It feels so good to have the nerves, to have the butterflies, to have the adrenaline, and to push yourself. I always feel it’s me against the mountain and I love that feeling. In ski racing, there’s no limit to what you can push yourself to. I think this is the perfect start and I look forward to trying to improve every race.”

Vonn had to cut her career short in 2019 due to a series of crashes and injuries, but then she had knee replacement surgery in April and had two titanium pieces inserted into her right knee. Her knee feels better than it has in years, so she decided to come back.

Vonn left the tour with 82 World Cup wins – the record for a woman at the time and within reach of the then all-time Alpine mark of 86 held by Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark. The women’s record held by Vonn was eclipsed in January 2023 by American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, who now has an outright record 99 wins.

Shiffrin, who shares the record of five wins in St Moritz with Vonn, isn’t racing this weekend as she recovers from abdominal surgery to clean out a puncture wound she sustained in a crash last month. Vonn took advantage of a new wildcard rule that allows former champions to enter races without the necessary points.

Eight-time overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher also took advantage of the wild card rule and returned this season after five years away. But then Hirscher tore his left ACL while training in giant slalom and announced earlier this month that his comeback season was done.

Vonn is attempting to enter unchartered territory in terms of success at an advanced age in women’s skiing. The oldest woman to win a World Cup race was Federica Brignone, the Italian who won the giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, in October to start this season, at age 34.

The oldest man to win a race was Didier Cuche at 37 in a super-G in Crans Montana, Switzerland, in 2012. Johan Clarey set the record for the oldest podium finisher with a second-place result in the famed Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, at age 42 in January 2023.