Lindsey Vonn finished 23rd in her first race since breaking the women’s World Cup wins record, getting sideways and appearing to put a hand on the snow to avoid falling in a downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Saturday.
Swiss Lara Gut won by .32 over Austrian Anna Fenninger. Hungary’s Edit Miklos was third, .58 behind. Vonn crossed 2.08 seconds back.
Vonn, who has 63 World Cup wins, missed an opportunity to all but clinch her seventh World Cup downhill season title. Her biggest challenger coming in, Slovenia’s Tina Maze, also struggled and finished 18th.
Vonn now leads the World Cup downhill standings by 79 points over Fenninger with two scheduled races left, following February’s World Championships in Vail/Beaver Creek, Colo. A race victory nets 100 points.
Vonn will tie Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell‘s record if she captures a seventh World Cup downhill title. It was Moser-Proell whom Vonn just passed for the women’s World Cup wins record.
Vonn’s last race before the World Championships is slated to be a St. Moritz super-G on Sunday.