Sun Valley, Idaho – The return of Lindsey Vonn to the podium, six years since he moved away from ski races, 11 months from his partial knee replacement, four months since he announced his return, hit her strongly in the final area.
Fighting to recover your breath, but still handle the energy to lift their ski poles in celebration, tears fell. They were for joy and relief that she could even return to the World Cup circuit. They were for the satisfaction of demonstrating that all their doubts were wrong. They were, he explained, for showing “this adventure in which I put on what I was worth it.”
Vonn concluded his return season at age 40 with a second place in a world-cup super g race on Sunday that was won by the outstanding leading of Lara Gut-Berami. Vonn became the oldest alpine ski run to step on the podium of a World Cup race, for six years.
“It was (improper) hard,” Vonn said. “This is not easy what I am doing. He simply felt very well to say that I did it. I can still do it.”
Vonn found his vintage form while flying by the twisted course and steep Challenger in the World Cup finals. The winner of the World Cup 82 times, along with the three -time Olympic medalist, looked at the score and soaked in the roar of the great crowd.
More NBC News Sports
It is a moment she will appreciate.
“Age is just a number,” Vonn said. “If you feel good and you are mentally motivated and work hard, you can achieve anything that establishes you.”
It was also motivated by the skeptics, those who criticized her by returning.
“Sometimes the negative voices take me more than the positive ones,” Vonn said. “I use all that as fuel. It propelled me in some difficult times this year. I knew I could do it.
“When I crossed the finish line, there is a lot of relief to be where I know that I can be and silence so many negative voices that just surrounded me, it feels like, in the whole season. It was a good exclamation point to put in the season.”
This was the first position on the Vonn World Cup podium since March 15, 2018, when it ended third in a super-g in Are, Sweden. A year later in As, he won the bronze downhill in the World Championship before calling him a race in large part due to his knee.
Vonn received a titanium knee last April and felt so well that he announced in November his plans for a return.
“I’m still showing that anything is possible,” Vonn said. “They have knocked me so many times in my life personally, physically, mentally, beaten and I always get up again. It is not always easy.
“It really is really hard work (improper). But that’s what is needed, place one foot in front of the other and cross the difficult days. When you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it takes you to a place like today.”
Before the race, his father, Alan Kildow, took her by the arm and only said: “Without fear.”
She listened.
“Of all the races, of all the courses in which he has been, this one really suits him,” Kildow said about the redesigned course of Sun Valley. “A very clean and technical race could go a long way. I skied it as if it had.”
It was the 138th Podium of the Vonn World Cup at its 408th World Cup start. She is inside one of the ties most of the beginnings for an Alpina correra, a brand of Renate Goetschl of Austria.
An skiat not surprised by Vonn’s success is the 34 -year -old Italian corridor Federica Brignone.
“She is Lindsey Vonn,” said Brignone, who officially assured the discipline of descent on Saturday after the race was canceled, along with the general crown. “He is not someone who returns from another injury. He has qualities and is an incredible champion. Today, he put all the pieces (together) and made an incredible race.”
Gut-Berami ended in a time of 1 minute, 12.35 seconds, surpassing Vonn for 1.29 seconds, to win the Super-G glass balloon of the season surpassing Brignone. Gut-Berami lost for five points in Sunday’s race. Gut-Berami found a lot of speed and assumed some calculated risks to slide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.
The final super-g classification of the whole season ended in Gut-Behrami, Brignone and Sofía Goggia of Italy.
“Two days ago, I finally found happiness again in the skis,” Gut-Berami explained. “It’s easier skiing quickly when you’re enjoying what you’re doing. I’ve been looking for that all season.”
The next race at the World Cup finals is Tuesday with a female giant slalom.
For Vonn, the season is over. His plan is to rest for a few weeks and then go to Europe to get more tests from his ski team.
“Literally gave every last ounce of energy that I had in the last race of the season,” Vonn explained. “I could barely breathe (at the end), maybe because I was crying.
“It was a great career.”
