The Downhill season opener of the 2025-26 season will certainly be one to remember, for it marks the return of “The Vonn.”
After yesterday’s tricky training run in low light, which saw Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin crash and be helicoptered to hospital, Friday turned out to be the perfect bluebird day. 41-year-old Vonn had a frustrating training day as she started after Gisin and was flagged down mid-run. She had led the training run on Wednesday, December 10.
The race day started with Nina Ortlieb first out of the gates. The Austrian set the pace for the course with a time of 1:31.31. Vonn’s training run on Wednesday had set a winning time of 1:30.95, so that gave way to speculation that today’s course might be running a bit slower.
Kira Weidle Winkelmann in bib 4 put herself in the lead with a time of 1:31.21 minutes and was later joined by Laura Pirovano, in bib 10, who tied with the German for first down to the very millisecond. The pair was unseated by Austria’s Conny Hütter, who snatched the lead by 0.16 seconds, but her time in the leader’s seat was short-lived as her teammate Mirjam Puchner in bib 14 edged her out by 0.26 seconds. Puchner had claimed her first career victory in St. Moritz nine years ago, and the 33-year-old has a total of eight podiums to her name.
After the first 15 skiers a little break is scheduled, and it was almost like St. Moritz was taking a dramatic pause for what was about to unfold: Lindsey Vonn’s victory in bib 16. When Vonn skied out of the gate, she quickly set the pace for her stellar performance. By sector three, she was in the lead, and as she approached the Rominger Jump, she almost had a second lead. The crowd went wild as they could see her fly down the final meters of the Corviglia race course, crossing the finish 1.16 seconds ahead of Puchner. Vonn flew into the barrier and collapsed, raising her arms into the air—yes, she had done it, she had taken the lead by a near-impossible margin of more than a second.
Skier after skier failed to come close to that margin until the top 30 were nearly done. But Magdalena Egger from Austria’s B-Team managed to surprise everyone by hanging on to her great momentum from the top section and carrying it all the way across the finish line, skiing into second place just shy of a second behind Vonn. Skiing in bib 27, the 24-year-old Austrian claimed her first career podium, joining the two veterans on the World Cup podium at St. Moritz today.
Notable performances also came from Breezy Johnson, who skied into 16th, Bella Wright, who, with a bib 36, skied into 16th place just 0.01 seconds behind Johnson, while Jacqui Wiles and Haley Cutler also skied into the top 20 with an 18th and 20th place, respectively. In addition, Keely Cashman and Allison Mollin earned valuable FIS points by skiing into the top 30 with 24th and 27th place, respectively. Tricia Mangan narrowly missed out, finishing in 36th place. It was a great performance by Team USA today and we look forward to another Downhill tomorrow, Saturday, December 13, and a Super-G on Sunday, December 14.
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