Vonn faces date with downhill destiny at Winter Olympics

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO: Lindsey Vonn will attempt the seemingly impossible on Sunday when she launches herself down one of the world’s most prestigious pistes hunting for an Olympic medal in the Milan-Cortina downhill.

One of world sport’s most recognisable faces and an alpine skiing icon, 41-year-old Vonn is battling ruptured knee ligaments and Father Time in her favoured event in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The American has insisted since revealing she had ruptured an ACL in her left knee that she could not only compete but win against the world’s best women skiers, some of whom are nearly half her age.

She has already defied the odds by completing two training runs just a week after suffering the injury in the last World Cup downhill race, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, before the Olympics.

And Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion who came out of retirement in 2024 thanks to a titanium implant in her right knee, is confident she could complete her greatest comeback yet on Sunday, when she will be the 13th out of the starting gate.

She has batted aside those who doubt her ability to perform with such an injury, and took to social media to fire back at a doctor for doubting her ACL tear was “fresh” from Crans Montana.

“My ACL was fully functioning until last Friday. Just because it seems impossible to you doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” Vonn said.

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“And yes, my ACL is 100 percent ruptured. Not 80 percent or 50 percent. It’s 100 percent gone.”

While Vonn, who also leads this season’s World Cup downhill standings, has been biting back online she has been largely taciturn with media after each training run, beyond one-word expressions of positivity.

Instead she has let her coach Aksel Lund Svindal speak for her, and the Norwegian has praised Vonn’s displays in her practice runs, even though he admitted she will have to “push harder” if she is to claim a fourth Olympic medal.

“It didn’t take long until she was convinced that this was possible and she’s been through so many things that I figured, if she knows, she knows,” said two-time Olympic gold medallist Svindal.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed but let’s just (say), she was a lot more positive than those doctors.”

Her US teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, who is not competing in the downhill at these Games, was also positive about Vonn’s chances, saying she has “100 percent belief that anything is possible.”

Sofia Goggia of Italy would relish winning in front of her home fans.

In other action on Sunday, the USA go into the final day of the figure skating team event seeking to hold off a stiff challenge from Japan.

Ilia Malinin, the US sensation who was upstaged on his Olympic debut on Saturday by Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, skates again on Sunday in the free programme.

Medals are also on offer in biathlon, cross-country skiing, luge, snowboard and speed skating.