Lindsey Vonn eyes Garmisch-Partenkirchen hat-trick in last warm-up before Winter Olympics

Sport360 staff 20:41 02/02/2018
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  • Veteran Vonn is leaving no stone unturned in her preparation.

    Lindsey Vonn can claim a hat-trick of downhill victories in Garmisch-Partenkirchen this weekend in the women’s final World Cup tune-up before the Winter Olympics.

    The US ski queen has always fared well in Garmisch, winning the downhill in both 2016 and 2017, to give her a total of seven World Cup victories on the Kandahar course.

    Warm temperatures at the start of the week in the Bavarian Alps have softened the course, which saw training sessions cancelled on both Thursday and Friday.

    Organisers plan a training session on Saturday, later followed by a downhill race, with a second downhill scheduled for Sunday.

    Vonn, 33, picked up the 40th downhill win of her career in Cortina last month and now has 79 World Cup victories to her credit.

    In doing so, she became the oldest winner of a women’s World Cup downhill race.

    “It is strange to have this record,” Vonn said.

    “I still have the motivation to ski and the will to win, so I feel like I am 25.”

    Following fine-tuning in Garmisch, her main focus is the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, which open next Thursday.

    The women’s Olympic alpine programme starts with the giant slalom on February 12 while the downhill – the blue-riband event – is on February 21.

    However, she missed the 2014 Sochi Games after tearing the cruciate ligament in her right knee and has said “it’s all or nothing in Korea”.

    “This will almost certainly be my last (Olympics) and I have waited eight years for it,” Vonn added.

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