The China Mail - Lindsey Vonn completes first downhill training run at Winter Olympics

Skiing with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, Vonn clocked a time of 1min 40.33sec in the American's first official run in Cortina d'Ampezzo, which was delayed for well over an hour due to fog hanging over the Olimpia delle Tofane piste.

Vonn, 41, had been scheduled to take part in Thursday's training run which was cancelled due to heavy snowfall, and on Friday she was forced to wait for her go as fog swept onto the middle section of piste even as bright sunshine shone at the finish line.

Assuming her knee holds up, Vonn will be able to go for her fourth Olympic medal when she approaches the starting gate for Sunday's final of the downhill, the discipline in which she won her sole Olympic gold in 2010.

Skiers need to complete one training run in order to compete in the final, with one more session scheduled for Saturday morning.

Vonn dropped a bombshell on the Milan-Cortina Games on Tuesday when she revealed the extent of her injury, suffered during a heavy crash in the most recent World Cup downhill in Crans Montana a week ago.

She had been in hot form this season, her second since making an astonishing return from retirement in November 2024 following surgery to partially replace her right knee earlier that year.

Vonn has finished on the podium in every World Cup downhill race this season, including two victories in St. Moritz and Zauchensee, and has claimed two more top-three finishes in the super-G.

V.Liu--ThChM