Val-d’Isère (France) (AFP) – American Lindsey Vonn made the perfect return from a back injury and backlash at her anti-Trump comments by storming to victory in the World Cup super-G in Val d’Isere on Saturday.
Vonn, 33, clocked 1min 04.86sec down a shortened OK piste in cold overcast conditions to improve her record tally of World Cup wins to 78, 28 of which have come in the super-G.
Italian Sofia Goggia was second, at 0.31sec, with Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel (+0.39) rounding out the podium.
“I think I skied well,” said Vonn. “The terrain was really bumpy and I almost fell at the end.
“I’m really happy to have had a race today,” she added after Thursday and Friday’s downhill training runs were cancelled because of high winds and heavy snow.
Starting with bib number six, Vonn was sluggish out of the start hut but laid down an extremely fast last third, topping 100kmh (60mph) as she scorched through for a dominant victory.
It was perfect timing for Vonn after finding herself in the spotlight this week after making comments about the US government and President Donald Trump which caused a massive backlash, much of it negative.
Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather departed immediately after Vonn, but crashed out as racers were hampered by fog that had rolled in.
World super-G champion Nicole Schmidhofer finished just off the podium, at 0.67sec.
But French hope Tessa Worley, the two-time world giant slalom champion, finished well down the field after a horrible mistake midway down the course.
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