In Olympic sports last week, Lindsey Vonn finished first, second and fourth in her first races of the Olympic season in the best weekend of her comeback thus far.
In St. Moritz, Switzerland, Vonn won Friday’s downhill – at age 41, shattering the record of oldest alpine skiing World Cup race winner – to open her second season since ending a five-year retirement to bid for a fifth and final Olympics. She was runner-up behind Emma Aicher of Germany in Saturday’s downhill and fourth in Sunday’s super-G won by Alice Robinson of New Zealand.
Vonn next races in Val d’Isere, France, this Saturday (downhill) and Sunday (super-G).
“Overall, it was a great weekend, and I take a lot of confidence from it, but I definitely have things to fix for next weekend, and a lot of motivation to take with me as well,” Vonn said after Sunday’s race. “In general, I felt like after the win I lost some energy. It was really emotional. I’m a very emotional person when I ski, so I need that reserve, and I didn’t really have it today and yesterday. So, I think now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, hopefully next weekend, I’ll be able to be recharged.”
Vonn called it maybe the most meaningful win of her career. She shed tears on the award podium.
“I just called my dad, he was crying so hard,” she said Friday, according to FIS. “I’ve never heard him so emotional in my whole life. It made me cry, too. The win means so much to me. I knew in the summer I was on the right path, and all the hard work has paid off.”
Last season, Vonn raced 13 times on the World Cup with three finishes in the top 10. She stressed then that she needed time to get up to speed, particularly fine-tuning her equipment. Vonn went into this season saying she was possibly in the best shape of her life and that she found a solution to the equipment issues (specifically her ski boots). She was also aided by her new coach, two-time Olympic gold medalist Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway.
Also in St. Moritz, Mikaela Shiffrin raced her first super-G in two years. She was 15th-fastest at the last split time before missing the penultimate gate and recording a DNF. Shiffrin said before the season that she might race strictly the slalom, giant slalom and team combined at the Olympics. She races a slalom Tuesday in Courchevel, France, bidding for a fifth consecutive win in her primary event.
World downhill champion Breezy Johnson was 15th and fourth in the St. Moritz downhills, then posted that she was in the worst pain of her life earlier in the week dealing with a back injury sustained eight weeks earlier. Johnson felt better after her races and plans to be in Val d’Isere.
Jordan Stolz won all five of his races at a World Cup and goes into 2026 riding a nine-race win streak over his three primary events (500m, 1000m, 1500m). On Sunday, he tacked on his first career World Cup victory in the mass start -- potentially a fourth event for him in Milan.
Each of the last two weekends, Stolz broke track records in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m at two of the most historic venues in the sport – Thialf in the Netherlands and the Viking Ship in Norway.
Stolz, who swept the 500m, 1000m and 1500m at the World Championships in 2023 and 2024, can become the second American to win three or more gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Fellow Wisconsin speed skater Eric Heiden won five golds at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
Erin Jackson, the 2022 Olympic 500m gold medalist, finished several seconds behind the winners in her three races in Norway as she works her way back from a hamstring injury.
Both Stolz and Jackson met Olympic qualifying criteria via World Cup results and will clinch spots on the team by racing at the Olympic Trials from Jan. 2-5 in Milwaukee, regardless of their results.
The U.S. men’s team pursuit – Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman – completed a sweep of the three fall World Cup races. The team is also the reigning world champion and world record holder.
Over the last week, 20 more athletes were named to the U.S. Olympic team, bringing the total roster up to 37. Ultimately, the team will be around 200 athletes.
On Saturday, the eight-skater short track team was named, led by Kristen Santos-Griswold and Corinne Stoddard. Each is a contender to become the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport since 2010.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. men’s and women’s curling teams led by Danny Casper and Tabitha Peterson clinched Olympic spots at a last-chance qualifying tournament. In ski mountaineering, Anna Gibson and Cam Smith will compete in that sport’s Olympic debut.
Freeskier Troy Podmilsak also clinched an Olympic spot with his second big air World Cup victory of the season at Visa Big Air in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Podmilsak joins the already qualified Alex Hall, the 2022 slopestyle gold medalist, on the team in big air and slopestyle.
Jamie Anderson, the 2014 and 2018 Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold medalist, finished sixth in snowboard big air in Steamboat in her first competition since having her second daughter, Nova, in April. Anderson was the lone American to make the final, boosting her chances of qualifying for a fourth Olympic team come January.
In women’s hockey, the U.S. crushed Canada 10-4 and 4-1, completing a four-game sweep of their pre-Olympic rivalry series by a combined score of 24-7. The U.S. won its last six games against Canada dating back to last April’s World Championship tournament, the longest streak for either nation in the rivalry since the U.S. won six in a row in 2015-16.
The U.S. was led in the series by Olympic veterans Hilary Knight and Abbey Murphy with five goals each and Taylor Heise (nine points) and Laila Edwards (six points), each eyeing a first Olympics.
Summer Britcher became the first U.S. luger to win a singles World Cup race in nearly eight years, prevailing in Park City. Ashley Farquharson was third for her first individual World Cup podium.
Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander placed second in men’s doubles, while the U.S. team relay was third. In luge, Americans typically perform better on the U.S. tracks in Park City and Lake Placid than abroad.
Germany and Austria lead the way on European tracks, though the U.S. had promising results at the first races held at the Cortina Olympic venue last month: second in men’s doubles (Marcus Mueller/Ansel Haugsjaa) and fourth in women’s singles (Farquharson).
World champions Mystique Ro and Austin Florian made their first podium of the season in mixed team skeleton, an event that makes its Olympic debut in 2026. Ro and Florian placed second in Lillehammer, Norway, between Great Britain and Germany, the top two Olympic medal contenders. The U.S. last won an Olympic skeleton medal in 2014.
In bobsled, Kaysha Love had the best U.S. result for a third consecutive week to start the season – fourth in the two-woman event behind three German sleds, led by the world’s top driver, Laura Nolte. Love, the reigning world champion in monobob, is ranked second overall this season in two-woman and fourth in monobob.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries was fifth in the two-woman and seventh in monobob in Lillehammer. Five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor was ninth and 12th in the two events.
