Lindsey Vonn‘s days as a five-event skier may be history.
“I don’t know if I’ll do slalom again,” Vonn said in a Thursday press conference before this weekend’s races in Val d’Isere, France, adding with a laugh, “It’s difficult starting in the back [of the start list of a slalom race, due to her inactivity in slalom].”
Vonn raced two weeks ago for the first time this year following knee surgery, finishing eighth in a downhill, winning a downhill and taking second in a super-G in Lake Louise, Alberta.
Those are speed events, Vonn’s specialties.
She hasn’t raced in the technical disciplines of giant slalom and slalom, or the super combined (one speed race and one slalom) since before her February 2013 World Championships super-G crash.
Vonn has won two World Cup slaloms but hasn’t made the podium since before the 2010 Olympics. She entered all five Olympic races in Vancouver, and though some expectations included talk of five medals, her goal was to win one medal of any color. Vonn met it, taking downhill gold and super-G bronze.
Vonn has said she thought about racing a giant slalom in Are, Sweden, last weekend but opted against it. She will race in a downhill and super-G in Val d’Isere on Saturday and Sunday. Vonn will then take a Christmas break, skipping the following weekend’s giant slalom and slalom in Semmering, Austria.
That’s the final World Cup giant slalom before the World Championships in Vail/Beaver Creek, Colo., in February.
Vonn said she’s been training more giant slalom than super-G or downhill, but she may have to wait until after the World Championships to race GS.
“GS, I have no problems, so it’s just a matter of the right timing,” Vonn said. “Maybe around World Championships or after World Championships, I’ll start GS again.”
Mikaela Shiffrin no longer plans to race Val d’Isere super-G