CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — It’s going to be an emotional weekend for Lindsey Vonn.
Finally ready to open her injury-delayed final full season on the World Cup circuit, Vonn will also be racing in one of her favorite resorts for the last time.
“It’s kind of a lot to process. There’s a lot going on at one time,” Vonn said at a news conference Wednesday. “I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can without getting too stressed out. I love it so much here.”
The resort nicknamed the “queen” of the Dolomites Range was where Vonn earned her first World Cup podium result in 2004; and where she broke the all-time women’s wins record with victory No. 63 in 2015.
Vonn holds the Cortina record with 12 wins – a solid block of her total 82 World Cup victories – many of them involving close battles against previous Cortina record-holder Renate Goetschl (10 wins), fellow American Julia Mancuso and Maria Hoefl-Riesch.
The only place Vonn has won more is at Lake Louise, Alberta, where she has 18 victories.
Vonn was planning on opening her season in Lake Louise in November until she injured her left knee in training a week before her scheduled first race.
“If there’s a place – minus Lake Louise – that I could make a return then I think Cortina would be No. 1 on my list,” Vonn said, speaking with her dog, Lucy, sitting on her lap.
“I was hoping that this last season would have been a lot different starting in Lake Louise but nothing in life seems to happen the way I hoped or planned. So I just take the cards that I’m dealt and I’ll play them with what I have.”
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