“It was a really great race. Well, it wasn’t a race. But for me, at the finish, with this great atmosphere, it was almost like a race.” Last week, the forty-year-old from Minnesota had a rather revealing slip of the tongue, after playing the lead during the descent of Beaver Creek. But her performance convinced her and she will make her return to the World Cup this weekend in Graubünden.
There was no official timing, to definitively ensure her ability to race with the best speed specialists in the world. Some assured that she would have achieved the 9th time, if she had been classified with the girls who followed her. Others advanced a time taken by hand of 1’34”1, one second and seven tenths behind the winner, Cornelia Hütter. That would have earned her a place at the end of the top 20, ahead of Corinne Suter, for example.
We stopped our time in 1’33”6, by repeating the match in front of a video of his descent. She would have finished 12th. A few days earlier, Lindsey Vonn had tested herself on two FIS super-Gs at Cooper Mountain, finishing 24th and 19th. “I haven’t given one hundred percent of my abilities yet,” she said at the bottom of the Birds of Prey. But I have already put more pressure than during the first few training events.”
Casually, it remains quite an achievement for the American with 82 World Cup victories, but who has not used her spatulas during a global level event for almost six years and who is armed with a prosthesis in titanium on one knee, since last April. The one who admits to being inspired by Lebron James and Roger Federer, feels good and that’s already a victory. She does not rule out, if everything goes well, extending her comeback until the Games in Cortina and Milan, in a little over a year.
“Inspecting the track with my teammates and trying to find my rhythm… Everything seemed like it was supposed to be,” she explained afterwards. There are still things to do like finding the right settings, finding my timing. I’m close to being in a good position and I just hope everyone around me is as patient as I am.” In Switzerland, where she is racing this weekend, it seems that we are taking our time. That’s good.
