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≡ “QUEEN OF THE DOLOMITES”? ≡
American skiing star Lindsey Vonn blew up the skiing world on Friday when she won the opening women’s FIS Alpine World Cup Downhill of the season at St. Moritz (SUI), destroying the world-class field in 1:29.63, almost a full second ahead of Magdalena Egger (AUT: 1:30.61) and Mirjam Puchner (AUT: 1:30.79), with 2018 Olympic Downhill champ Sofia Goggia (ITA: 1:30.94) in fourth.
At age 41, she won her 83rd career World Cup race and first since 2018, and showed this was no fluke on Saturday, when she placed second to Germany’s Emma Aicher, 1:30:50 to 1:30.74, with Goggia third (1:30.79) and American Breezy Johnson, the surprise 2025 World Downhill Champion, a close fourth in 1:30.90.
That’s amazing for someone who retired due to injuries in 2019 but only returned in 2025 thanks to knee replacement surgery in 2024
The results show the comebacking Vonn is not just a possible medal contender for the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games Downhill, she will be – barring injury – one of the favorites.
And that’s because the women’s Downhill will be in Cortina d’Ampezzo, her favorite track.
She emphasized this in interviews, including last week on Olympics.com:
“I wouldn’t even try this if it wasn’t in Cortina. I don’t think I would have any interest in doing it.
“Cortina is the draw. Cortina is the reason. It’s a very meaningful place to me. It’s where I got my first podium. I broke the women’s World Cup win record there, I’ve had a couple of wins there. It feels like home.
“So the fact that I can race for the first time at an Olympics on a track that I actually know well, I think is a huge opportunity. All the other courses I’ve raced in all the other Olympics, I’ve maybe had one or two races on them ever. Same for everyone else. This is a completely different ball game.”
Vonn won the Olympic Downhill gold and Super-G bronze in Vancouver in 2010 as well as a Downhill bronze in 2018. For 2026, she goes back to Cortina; just how well has she really done there?
Research shows that Vonn and Cortina are quite a pair:
● 21 Downhill starts since 2004: 12 medals (6-3-3)
● 21 Super-G starts since 2002: 8 medals (6-1-1)
● 3 Giant Slalom starts 2006: 0 medals
● 45 starts since 2002: 20 medals (12-4-4)
So, Vonn has won a medal 44% of the time she starts a race at Cortina, 57% of the time in the Downhill and 38% in the Super-G. She should stay away from the Giant Slalom; her three Cortina races in 2006-09-10 ended as did not finish, 10th and 19th!
And the schedule set up perfectly for her to try to win two golds in Cortina and be the skiing “Queen of the Dolomites” herself, as Cortina is known in the skiing world:
● 08 February: Women’s Downhill
● 10 February: Women’s Team Combined
● 12 February: Women’s Super-G
Vonn will be one of the favorites for the Downhill and if she wins, she will be in perfect position – barring injuries – to win a second gold in the women’s Team Combined with teammate (and all-time World Cup wins leader) Mikaela Shiffrin in the Slalom, pairing the two women with the most World Cup wins in the same event, on the same team!
Shiffrin already won the women’s Team Combined at the 2025 FIS World Alpine Championships, paired with Johnson, and a combination of Vonn and Shiffin would bring an unprecedented, combined 187 World Cup wins into the event.
A win there – a second 2026 gold – would then set up Vonn to chase a third gold in the Super-G two days later. Three Alpine golds in a single Games has only been done three times: Toni Sailer (AUT: 1956), Jean-Claude Killy (FRA: 1968) and Janica Kostelic (CRO: 2002).
Here’s an even wilder scenario: Vonn and Shiffrin could BOTH win three golds, if they win the Combined and then Shiffrin goes on to take the Giant Slalom and Slalom.
Impossible? Sure, until it happens. Not likely, but Vonn has opened the door with her stunning performance in St. Moritz. Before Cortina, though, there will be Downhill World Cups in Val d’Isere (FRA), then in 2026 in Zauchensee (AUT), Tarviso (ITA) and Crans-Montana (SUI) before the Olympic break.
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