By Alan Baldwin
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 6 (Reuters) – The weather kept Lindsey Vonn waiting, but the injured U.S. ski great boosted her medal prospects significantly by completing a first downhill training run without problems at the Milano Cortina Olympics on Friday.
The 41-year-old plans to race on Sunday despite rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament in a World Cup downhill crash in Switzerland last week – an injury that would have sidelined most competitors and has added more lustre to her already indomitable reputation.
Wearing bib number 10, the 2010 downhill champion and World Cup leader in the discipline had to wait an hour-and-a-half for low cloud to lift before she could test her braced left knee at any speed.
“All good?”, she was asked at the finish of Cortina’s Olimpia delle Tofane piste.
“Yup,” she replied, and walked away.
Her Norwegian coach and double Olympic gold medallist Aksel Lund Svindal was considerably more excited.
“From what I saw today I think she can,” he said of the American’s medal chances.
“There were reserves today. She looked symmetrical. And I mean, you’ve seen earlier this season that when she skis well, she can win. It’s going to be hard but I think she could possibly bring that on Sunday.”
LINE DANCING ON THE MOUNTAIN
Slovenian first starter Ilka Stuhec had crashed earlier, with the snow requiring re-grooming, and the session was then halted again as fog rolled in after the fourth skier, Austria’s Nina Ortlieb.
Norway’s Marte Monsen, who also crashed in Crans-Montana last week, did not start.
Vonn kept warm in her ski jacket while she and her teammates whiled away the time at the top of the mountain by taking selfies and working on their social media or carrying out exercise stretches.
They even performed some impromptu line dance routines.
When Vonn did get going, her run lasted one minute and 40.33 seconds, the 11th fastest in a field of 47 led by teammate Jacqueline Wiles. Point proven.
Vonn overcooked one turn and lost speed on the lower slopes but skiers often ease off in training, focusing on lines and terrain more than the stopwatch.
“I think she was smart. She didn’t go, you know, all in,” said Svindal. “So I thought it was good.”
Vonn had sounded ebullient earlier on social media.
“Nothing makes me happier! No one would have believed I would be here … but I made it!,” she had posted on Instagram as she made her way up the mountain in the morning.
“I’m here, I’m smiling and no matter what, I know how lucky I am. I’m not going to waste this chance. Let’s go get it!!”
Ortlieb hailed the “idol and legend”.
“I’ve heard that her knee feels pretty good. She has no swelling in it, and I think she’s mentally one of the toughest, so I think she can do it,” the Austrian told reporters at the finish area.
(Additional reporting by Julien Pretot, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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