Vail’s Lindsey Vonn didn’t get what she wanted out of the last month, but she capped a strong comeback season Wednesday when she captured the season downhill title at the World Cup finals in Meribel, France.
Having missed most of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons with knee injures, Vonn claimed her fourth win in eight World Cup downhills this season to clinch her seventh season title in the discipline and her 18th World Cup title overall. On Thursday she can capture her fifth super-G “globe” — the term skiers use for World Cup season titles because the trophies are crystal globes.
“This is probably the most meaningful globe I’ve ever won because I’ve been injured for the last two years with two major knee surgeries,” said Vonn, a four-time World Cup overall winner. “To come back this year, I was happy with just a few wins, but to actually get a globe is more than I had hoped for. It means a great deal to me.”
At the world championships Vonn claimed a and , but the World Cup title means Vonn was the world’s best downhiller this season. She’s hoping she can say the same about super-G after Thursday’s race. She leads the season standings by a small margin over Anna Fenninger of Austria, who won the super-G at the world championships.
Vonn said she is “really optimistic” about Thursday’s super-G because she likes the course.
“All week I’ve had a good feeling,” Vonn said. “The snow has been really good for me, this is a good course for me and I just had a lot of confidence. I’m fresh, I’m positive, optimistic. I’m really happy.”
With her 63rd World Cup win in January, Vonn broke Annemarie Moser-Proell’s women’s record for World Cup wins. She now has 66.
Fellow Eagle County resident Mikaela Shiffrin will be looking to wrap up her third consecutive season slalom title on Saturday, holding a commanding 90-point lead over Frida Hansdotter of Sweden. The only way Hansdotter can overtake Shiffrin is if she wins (100 points) and Shiffrin finishes out of the points.
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
Lindsey Vonn’s 18 world cup “globes”
Overall titles: four
Downhill titles: seven
Super-G titles: four
Combined titles: three
