Vonn adds to strong start in Olympic ski season with third in World Cup downhill won by Huetter

VAL D’ISERE, France — Lindsey Vonn has come so far one year into her remarkable comeback for the Milan Cortina Olympics that third place in a World Cup downhill Saturday left her with regrets.

Entering the Olympic season at age 41, with a right knee strengthened by titanium implants, Vonn’s first four results in an intense nine-day spell now read: win, runner-up, fourth and third.

A mistake on the bottom half of the course Saturday cost Vonn a half-second, she suggested, in a downhill where she finished 0.35 behind Cornelia Huetter’s winning time on an overcast day.

“If you would have asked me last year, you know, if I would be happy with a podium, I would say abso-(expletive)-lutely,” Vonn said.

Recall there were no podium finishes in the first 12 World Cup races of her comeback that began exactly one year ago, nor at two world championships races in February.

Still, Vonn’s goals have been raised since March by a season-ending second place in a World Cup super-G at Sun Valley, and her even stronger start to this season.

“I know that I’m fast. There’s a lot to be happy about,” said the Minnesota native, who extended her lead in the season-long downhill standings after three of the scheduled nine races.

“With the light I didn’t quite see the terrain and lost my balance, and it cost me probably half a second or more,” said Vonn, who threw her arms out wide and looked anguished on seeing she was behind early leader Kira Weidle-Winkelmann’s time. “But when you’re going fast anything can happen.”

Racing immediately after Vonn, Huetter was consistently a little faster after the first time split and touched 126 kph (78 mph). She finished 0.26 seconds ahead of Weidle-Winkelmann and 0.35 clear of Vonn.

Vonn later congratulated Huetter with smiles and a hug when the 33-year-old Austrian was in the course-side leader’s box.

“I’m super proud,” said Huetter, recalling a poor training run Friday when “I was so bad, I was so slow. I don’t know why. Maybe I need some pressure inside of me.”

A big threat to Huetter on an overcast day with tricky visibility on the 1¾-mile O.K. course was 2018 Olympic champion Sofia Goggia.

Goggia finished in eighth place, 0.62 behind Huetter and shook her head in the finish area.

Huetter now has five downhill wins in her 10 career World Cup victories and won the season-long title in 2024. She should be a medal contender in the Olympic downhill scheduled Feb. 8 at storied Cortina d’Ampezzo.

She placed fourth in downhill at each of the two world championships held since the 2022 Beijing Olympics where she placed seventh.

Vonn’s comeback last year after nearly six seasons of retirement was to target the Milan Cortina Winter Games that will be her fifth Olympics. She took gold in 2010 at Vancouver and bronze behind Goggia at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea.

Her first Olympics was on home snow at Salt Lake City in 2002, held almost two years before one of her main current rivals, Emma Aicher of Germany, was even born.

Val d’Isere stages a super-G on Sunday, one week after Vonn was fourth in the discipline at St. Moritz won by 24-year-old Alice Robinson of New Zealand.

After that, a break over the holidays for the speed race specialists whose next World Cup start will then be Jan. 10 at Altenmarkt in Austria.

“I’m also looking forward to recharging,” Vonn said. “I have 49 more days until the Olympics start and I know I will be ready for that.”