Bormio (Italy) (AFP) – Unstoppable Mikaela Shiffrin and Swiss master Marco Odermatt headline the alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, but doubts remain over comeback queen Lindsey Vonn, arguably one of the biggest names at the Milan-Cortina Games.
In a bombshell reveal after touching down in the Dolomites for her fifth Olympics, Vonn revealed that she had in fact ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in an ill-timed crash in last weekend’s Crans-Montana World Cup downhill. Vonn, who retired because of persistent pain and underwent a partial knee replacement in April 2024 before making an astonishing comeback, insisted however that her dream of competing at the Olympics was “not over.”
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“My knee is not swollen and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete (in the downhill race) on Sunday,” the 41-year-old said. “I know what my chances were before the crash and I know my chances aren’t the same as it stands today. But I know there’s still a chance, and as long as there’s a chance I will try,” said Vonn, who has a record 12 World Cup victories on the Cortina course.
She is on a tight schedule. The first of three training runs for the women’s Olympic downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo was slated for Thursday but cancelled because of snow. The two others are scheduled on February 6-7, with racers obliged to race at least one of those to be able to compete in Sunday’s medal event.
– Shiffrin on fire –
Vonn’s teammate Shiffrin heads for the Cortina hills as the most successful skier of all time, male or female. The 30-year-old has racked up an incredible 108 victories on the World Cup, including seven wins in eight slalom races this season. Her latest victory came in the Czech Republic and was enough to see her become the first athlete on the circuit to win more than eight globes in a single event.
Despite taking slalom gold at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi days before her 19th birthday and giant slalom gold in Pyeongchang, Shiffrin will be on a quest to erase the memories of the 2022 Beijing Games where she failed to medal. “It’s wonderful to be consistent and fast, but every time I ski, I feel like I could be flying off the course at any moment,” she said. 2018 Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia and the returning Federica Brignone will be flying the flag for Italy in Cortina.
– Odermatt, the Swiss leader –
Odermatt is also a dominant force in the men’s events, the 28-year-old holding a massive lead atop the overall World Cup standings. “The Olympic Games are always challenging; it’s just the medals that count,” Odermatt said. “There are always some surprises. I’m already Olympic champion so that helps me going into these Games but for sure I’m going to try to take another medal.”
Odermatt will seek to lead a strong-looking Swiss team including fellow reigning world champions Loic Meillard and Franjo von Allmen to more glory. Odermatt, Meillard, and Von Allmen took last year’s world championships in Saalbach by storm. Of the 11 titles up for grabs, Switzerland won five, netting 13 of the 33 medals on offer in a dominant display.
Odermatt won giant slalom gold in Beijing four years ago and will be odds on to be pushing for more podium finishes in Italy. He already has eight World Cup wins to his name this season, showcasing his allrounder capability with three wins apiece in the giant slalom and downhill, and two more in the super-G. His competitiveness shone through in Kitzbuehel when he cried at his second place in the downhill behind Italian Giovanni Franzoni. “I feel stupid that I can be that disappointed about second place, here in Kitzbuehel, but we all knew that today, victory was my big goal, my big dream,” Odermatt said. “I didn’t make it.”
Franzoni is joined in the Italian team by veteran Dominik Paris, the 2019 super-G world champion who has seven career victories on Bormio’s Stelvio piste. “A medal would be great; to be so confident before the Olympics is pretty cool,” said Franzoni of his wins in not only Kitzbuehel but in Wengen.
© 2024 AFP
