Gut-Behrami tops downhill training, Vonn coasts

SAALBACH: Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami topped the first training run in the women’s downhill at the World Ski Championships in Saalbach on Tuesday, as Lindsey Vonn played down the importance of pushing too hard.

Gut-Behrami timed 1min 43.92sec down the 2.9km-long Ulli Maier course, finishing 0.05sec ahead of American Breezy Johnson. Federica Brignone was third at 0.63sec, one of four Italians in the top 11.

Vonn, competing in her ninth world championships after coming out of retirement, finished 20th, 2.24sec off Gut-Behrami’s pace, but stressed that she was “just taking it easy”. “I wanted to feel the terrain. I’m trying some different boots. I’m just kind of testing. I’m using the training runs as a testing opportunity,” the 40-year-old US star said.

“I really put zero weight into training runs because I’m testing things. “For me, this season is all about figuring out what it’s going to take to be successful next year.

“I’m further along than I expected, but a training run is a training run. It really means nothing. No one’s getting a medal for a training run.” Vonn’s return from retirement following the 2019 Are worlds was made possible after a knee reconstruction, partially of titanium, that left her pain-free for the first time in years.

But she admitted the rolling terrain in Saalbach was “probably the worst hill for someone with bad knees!” “But I felt great. None of the landings hurt at all. I feel really good. I’m a little bit getting a cold, but my knees felt great.

“I thought it was a really fun course. It actually reminds me of when I was learning how to ski downhill in Vail. We had a lot of terrain that we built like this.” Vonn added: “There’s a lot of room for improvement and for better skiing from my side, for sure.”