Downhill Bronze For Vonn

Racing in her final Olympic downhill race, four-time Olympian Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) won the bronze medal, leading three Americans into the top-seven Wednesday at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre.

"This is hard for me – I have so many emotions – this is my last Olympic downhill race in my career," said Vonn after winning her third career Olympic medal. "I am sad this is my last Olympics, I want to keep racing and I would love to be in the next Olympics, but I don’t think my body can take it.

"I wanted to win for my grandfather, but I think he would still be happy with bronze," Vonn added. "That is what counts. My family is proud of me – I am proud of me – and today, bronze feels like gold."

Competing in her second Olympic Winter Games, Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) came out of the 14th start position to finish fifth, while Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho), who was competing in her first Olympics, finished seventh. Two-time Olympian Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) was 15th.

"Lindsey is one of the greatest of all time, it’s an honor to have competed alongside her and been her teammate for the last nine years," McKennis said. "I’ve seen everything she’s gone through and her perseverance has been inspiring. That perseverance has helped me through my own struggles. She is going to leave a huge legacy behind."

Italy’s Sofia Goggia, who along with Vonn was one of the pre-race favorites after winning both the super-G and downhill test events on the Jeongseon Downhill course last season, laid down the gold medal run coming out of the fifth start position. Vonn, starting seventh, picked up time on the lower portion of the course, but came up almost a half-second short of Goggia’s gold-medal time, slotting in second at 0.49-seconds back.

Vonn held onto the silver-medal position until Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel, starting bib 19, took a shot at Goggia’s winning time, coming up just 0.09 second short to take the silver and knock Vonn into the bronze medal position. For Mowinckel, it was her second silver medal of the PyeongChang Games after finishing second to Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) in the giant slalom.

Vonn will compete in one more Olympic event, the alpine combined, which includes one run of downhill and one run of slalom Thursday. Joining her will be Shiffrin and Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.), who will be competing in her first Olympic race. The downhill is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. KT / 9:30 p.m. EST Wednesday. The second run slalom starts at 3:00 p.m. KT / 1:00 a.m. EST

RESULTS
Women’s downhill

START LIST
Women's alpine combined