Skiing: two months before the Games, Lindsey Vonn, 41, wins the Saint-Moritz downhill and signs her first victory in seven years

“Speed ​​Queen” is back! Lindsey Vonn, the queen of skiing, achieved a stratospheric performance on Friday to win the descent of Saint-Moritz (Switzerland) at the age of 41. His first victory since his return to competition last year and the 83rd of his career in the World Cup.

Bib number 16 under an azure sky, yet cautious on the first two sliding sections, the American stunned the race with a comfortable lead over the Austrians Magdalena Egger (+ 0″98) and Mirjam Puchner (+ 1″16).

And even if 45 competitors still had to set off on the Corviglia, visibly faster with each passage, the clamor of the Graubünden crowd was eloquent: no one could fill the gap created by the “queen of speed” at the start of this speed season.

Seven and a half years after her last World Cup success, on the Are descent in March 2018, the legend from Vail is applying more than ever to end her second career with a new Olympic title in February during the Games in Milan-Cortina (Italy), from Friday February 6 to Sunday February 22, 2026, where she will ski on one of her favorite slopes.

The bet seemed crazy, and greeted by skeptical comments, when she announced in the summer of 2024 her return to competition after five seasons of absence and the installation of a titanium prosthesis to partially replace her right knee.

But Vonn, performing well on her return to this same Grisons track (14th in the super-G), ended her season with a second place in super-G at Sun Valley, even though she still had material adjustments to find, physical form to perfect and better bibs to conquer.

“I feel like I’m a child again”

And after a summer of gaining more than 5 kg of muscle, putting on her old shoes that were finally more to her liking and working with her friend and new trainer, the Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, she showed up in the Engadine in sparkling form, in the lead from the first downhill training on Wednesday.

“My body responds to all the requests of my mind and that has not always been the case,” she confided to RTS before the event. Now I can do everything, I feel like I’m a child again.”

We will have to count on the American at the next Winter Games.