Lindsey Vonn finishes Olympic downhill training on injured knee - ESPN

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — A week after rupturing the ACL in her left knee, Lindsey Vonn opened her chase for Olympic gold at the age of 41 with an aggressive and successful training run down the Olympia delle Tofane downhill course Friday, two days before the race.

Vonn got tight with her line midway down and only narrowly cleared a gate, but she led at the final checkpoints then stood up out of her tuck before the finish and placed 11th as skiers got their first official turns on the Olympia delle Tofane course ahead of the big race.

«She was smart. She didn't go all-in,» said Aksel Lund Svindal, a former Olympic downhill champion from Norway and now one of Vonn's personal coaches. «She made a mistake on the bottom, but the rest looked like just good skiing, but no big risk. And to me it looked symmetrical.»

At the finish, Vonn traded fist pumps and a hug with teammate Breezy Johnson, who came down ninth, just before her, after a nearly hourlong delay because of fog.

«Yep,» Vonn told The Associated Press when asked if the run went well. She did not stop to talk further with reporters, leaving for more rehab on her knee.

Vonn is skiing at the Milan Cortina Games with a large brace covering her knee. She has been clear since her crash last week in Switzerland that she would go forward despite an injury that many athletes would consider a season- or even a career-ender.

«Nothing makes me happier! No one would have believed I would be here,» Vonn wrote on social media before her run. «But I made it!!! I'm here, I'm smiling and no matter what, I know how lucky I am. I'm not going to waste this chance. Let's go get it!!»

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Vonn finished 1.39 seconds behind American