SRF ski expert Stefan Abplanalp talks to blue Sport about Lindsey Vonn's comeback plans and the consequences of the injuries suffered by Mikaela Shiffrin after her serious fall.
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- Two US-Americans are currently in the spotlight in the Ski World Cup. Linde's Vonn is planning her comeback five years after her retirement and record World Cup winner Mikaela Shiffrin is out injured.
- SRF ski expert Stefan Abplanalp tells blue Sport why he believes Vonn will make a successful comeback and why it cannot be compared to that of Marcel Hirscher.
- Abplanalp says of Shiffrin: "She will only come back when she is 100 percent fit again."
Lindsey Vonn could make her World Cup comeback in St. Moritz shortly before Christmas after a break of several years. The 40-year-old has already set the hearts of ski fans racing with a training video on social media.
This weekend, Vonn is already planning to race again for the first time since February 2019. Apparently, she wants to compete in the downhill and super-G at a lower-level FIS race in Copper Mountain in the state of Colorado.
"It's amazing and impressive how Lindsey is already performing again," says SRF ski expert Stefan Abplanalp in an interview with blue Sport. "But it's a process. She has to learn to train on skis again. She was away for five years, of course she was already skiing, but not competitively."
The next step is to learn to race again - and hopefully win again, says Abplanalp. "But a lot has to come together. She certainly still has a long way to go."
Hirscher comeback not comparable
Marcel Hirscher also made a comeback after several years away from the ski tour. Before he tore his cruciate ligament, however, the Austrian was unable to repeat his earlier brilliant performances. For Abplanalp, this is no indication that the US-American will fail.
Hirscher has returned in the technical disciplines. But in the slalom, for example, he has done relatively well. Now there are the young guns like Clément Noël or Lucas Braathen. "The sport has changed a bit there. The path is greater for Hirscher to catch up here, even though he has always trained."
Lindsey, on the other hand, is competing in the fast disciplines of super-skiing and downhill. "The course, the course setting, the material hasn't changed much. She's diving back into a pool that she already knows," says Abplanalp.
"She knows what she's doing"
The whole thing is certainly "not a publicity stunt", emphasizes Abplanalp. "The ambitions are there, she's not coming back just to race. Lindsey wants to race again to feel the speed and the adrenaline, to compete with others."
The four-time overall World Cup winner has been racing with an artificial knee joint since April. "It's only a partial prosthesis, so most of her knee is still there. It is therefore possible that she will be able to ski competitively again," explains the Bernese Oberlander.
Is the US-American still afraid? "She wants to take the risk again. She wants the thrill of the fast turns from a closed-off piste back again. That's why there's no fear, but respect and reason. She knows what she's doing," says Abplanalp, who also used to coach the 2010 Olympic downhill champion.
Abplanalp: "If injured, then preferably in December"
Mikaela Shiffrin is currently unable to race: on the way to her 100th World Cup victory, the 29-year-old suffered several bruises and a deep wound to her stomach in a crash in the Killington giant slalom and will be out for "at least a few weeks".
The injury is not so bad that she can no longer ski, says Abplanalp. "But you can't stitch up these wounds because of the risk of infection, so of course it will take some time to heal."
The US-American won't be rushing into anything. "The way she skis - tactically brilliant - is also how she plans her season. She's not a multiple overall title winner for nothing, she's not the best of all time for nothing. That's why she won't do anything rash," emphasizes Abplanalp and adds: "She'll only come back when she's 100 percent fit again."
An injury never comes at a good time, says Abplanalp. "But if you're injured, then preferably in December. Then you still have time to recover and come back. Because the program really gets going at the end of December before the World Championships."
