Lindsey Vonn, back from injuries, gets a Cup win

Lindsey Vonn is back on top in just the second race of her comeback from a knee injury and a broken arm.

The American edged defending overall World Cup champion Lara Gut to win a downhill event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Saturday and claim career victory No. 77, moving her within nine wins of the record held by Ingemar Stenmark.

After finishing 0.15 seconds ahead of Swiss rival Gut and 0.48 ahead of Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, Vonn collapsed to the snow in celebration and shed tears of joy. She also grew emotional when she embraced her once-estranged father, Alan Kildow.

“I just got to the bottom and I cried,” Vonn said. “I worked really hard to come back. I feel like sometimes I come back so quickly. Everyone forgets how much time and energy and blood, sweat and tears it takes to come back without any training and just jump in there.

“I had to trust myself and my team and my technician and we all did our best and today was just amazing. I’m so happy that it only took me two races to get back on the top step,” the four-time overall World Cup champion added.

Vonn broke her upper right arm 10 weeks ago in a training crash on Copper Mountain, Colorado, while recovering from a left knee injury that ended last season prematurely in February. She finished 13th in the first race in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, last weekend.

“I honestly wasn’t sure after Zauchensee how long it would take me and I proved to myself today that all the work that I put in is really coming through,” Vonn said.