US ski queen Lindsey Vonn admits to having mixed feelings on the eve of the World Cup season with former rival Maria Hoefl-Riesch now retired from downhill racing.
“From a sporting perspective, it will be easier without Maria because she was always a rival, but personally it will be harder,” Vonn, who is returning from a serious knee injury, told German broadcaster ZDF.
“Maria was always a good friend and it’s like there is now a big hole in the World Cup.”
The 29-year-old American started training in the Austrian Alps last week as she looks to end nearly two years of injury misery with German rival Hoefl-Riesch, who beat her to the 2011 overall World Cup title, now retired.
The season starts in Soelden at the end of October, but Vonn will make her comeback at Lake Louise, Canada, in December.
Vonn underwent major knee surgery in January after re-injuring her right knee, which ruled her out of February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Vonn, who has 59 World Cup race victories to her credit, just three short of the record held by Austrian legend Annemarie Moser-Proll, badly injured her right knee while competing in a super-G at the 2013 World Championships.
Having not won a World Cup race since January 2013, Vonn is eager to get back to racing.
“I will start the intensive training in November in Vail, when the snow is ready,” she said.
“I have a month to get ready for Lake Louise and I hope I can really give it my all.”
The downhill specialist admits her rehabilitation programme took a lot of patience after month of strength training on her damaged knee.
“It needed a lot of patience and was very hard for me,” she said.
“I always want to give my all and the word ‘slowly’ isn’t in my vocabulary.”
But Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion, said she never thought of retiring and plans to race at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea — even though she turns 30 later this month.
“I never thought about quitting,” she insisted.
“It was hard to accept that I wouldn’t be going to the Sochi Olympic Games, but I simply thought that I’d be there for the next one.”