Lindsey Vonn finishes 24th in 1st race since announcing return at age 40

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. (AP) — Lindsey Vonn finished 24th in a lower-level FIS downhill race on Saturday as she returned from retirement to compete for the first time in nearly six years.

The 40-year-old Vonn is on the comeback trail after stepping away from the sport because of injuries. She wound up 1.44 seconds behind the winning time of 1 minute, 5.79 seconds posted by Mirjam Puchner of Austria. There were 43 racers who competed on a cool but mostly sunny day.

Moments after crossing the finish line, Vonn bent over to catch her breath. She then went over to the crowd to sign autographs and pose for photos before taking the ski lift back up the mountain.

There is a second downhill scheduled for later Saturday and a pair of super-G competitions on Sunday. Vonn is competing in a series of FIS races in an effort to gain the necessary results to lower her ranking so she possibly can enter World Cup events this season.

When she left the sport, Vonn’s 82 World Cup race victories stood as the record for a woman and within reach of the all-time Alpine record of 86 held by Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark. The women’s mark held by Vonn was surpassed in January 2023 by Mikaela Shiffrin, who now has 99 wins — more than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport.

Shiffrin is currently sidelined after a crash in a giant slalom event in Killington, Vermont, last weekend. The next World Cup races for the women’s circuit will be held in a week in nearby Beaver Creek, Colorado. Vonn hasn’t announced a timeline for when she hopes to return to the World Cup scene.

Vonn’s last major race was in February 2019, when she finished third in a downhill during the world championships in Sweden. The three-time Olympic medalist left the circuit still near the top of her game. But all the broken arms and legs, concussions and torn knee ligaments took too big a toll and sent her into retirement.

She had a partial knee replacement last April and felt good enough to give racing another shot.

There were quite a few big names in the field Saturday, including Swiss racer Michelle Gisin, Federica Brignone and Marta Bassino of Italy, and Cornelia Huetter of Austria. Also racing was 45-year-old Sarah Schleper, who once competed for the United States but now represents Mexico.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing