Only ten days after her return on the circuit at Zauchensee-Altenmarkt, Lindsey Vonn achieved once more one of her amazing comebacks on the demanding ‘Kandahar-Kreuzeck’ run at Garmisch-Partenkirchen where she stunned the rest of the field with her first season win.
In addition to her thoroughly planned rehab ever since she badly broke her humerus bone while training at Copper Mountain, in Colorado, last November, a special speed training past week organized by Athletes Special Projects (ASP) Red Bull gave her an extra boost in confidence for her skiing – and all the hard work paid off.
“This is truly amazing, I can’t believe this,” a very emotional Lindsey Vonn told the press after her intense race. The champion from Vail had tears of joy in her eyes as she was congratulated at the leader’s board by many other athletes and her dad Alan Kildow, also present in the German resort located south of Munich. “It has been for sure one of the hardest and most painful comebacks in my career,” also said the 32-year-old ski star. “It has been such a painful and grueling rehab that lasted so long. I went thru very tough moments so this is for sure a very special victory for me.”
“After the second training run, I knew I had to ski more aggressively to have a chance to reach the podium which was my goal today, yet I didn’t expect to be again so fast,” added the 2010 Olympic champion who had a hard time to keep the fastest line in training on the challenging Bavarian course.
“I knew after my rather conservative comeback last week at Zauchense that I had a good chance to move-up in the rankings with a more aggressive run – and I felt confident enough to take more risks here,” also said the best speed specialist ever on the World Cup tour with a total of 39 downhill victories.
The news she posted on her Facebook page after her latest triumph perfectly confirmed her huge joy about that landmark victory where she celebrated her last win a year ago a few weeks before her nasty crash in Andorra where she injured her left knee.
“Yeeeeeesssss !!!! I screamed, cried and then I couldn’t stop smiling because today, I WON!!!! I have been injured quite a few times but this past injury has been the toughest mentally. But in the end hard work always pays off. Thank you to everyone who helped get me here and thank you to my fans for all of the support, “she wrote on her page.
In Sunday’s Super-G, the American did her best to achieve a strong run on the technically demanding run set by the Swiss Head Coach, yet it was obvious that she needs more intense training runs to found back her best pace in that specialty. “Top-10 is fine for the moment, I surely need to get more practice in that event to find back my best rhythm,” she commented after her run. “I’m looking forward for the next race at Cortina d’Ampezzo to improve my skiing as I did in downhill yesterday. I’m really pleased with my weekend here.”
Lindsey Vonn is now only nine wins away from the all-time record of 86 victories set by Sweden’s Skiing Legend Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and 1980s. The four time overall World Cup champion is also one of the few top champions having celebrated victories in all alpine events during her 16-year-long-career unfortunately hampered by many accidents and injuries.
