Ross Ninth, Vonn 15th In Shortened Cortina Downhill

Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore) led the way for the U.S. Ski Team as Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) made her long-awaited, albeit, abbreviated return to the FIS Ski World Cup circuit with a rescheduled, and shortened, downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Friday.

Overnight snow forced organizers to lower the traditional start on the Olympia delle Tofane course to the Tofana jump, which resulted in somewhat of a sprint downhill won by Austria’s Ramona Siebenhofer in one minute, 15.44 seconds, her first career World Cup victory. Slovenia’s Ilka Stuhec was second and Austria’s Stephanie Venier finished third. Ross was ninth, and Vonn finished 15th. Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.) posted her fourth World Cup point-scoring result of the season, in 22nd.

Despite dealing with a head cold the last few days, Ross posted her best result of the season. “It was the first race of my whole season were I haven’t come down last, so that was kind of nice,” giggled Ross, who has been struggling with her equipment setup the past couple of months. “So yeah, I think I’m kind of getting it together a little more.”

For Vonn, she said she felt good in her return and was somewhat thankful for the shortened course as the Tofana jump did cause her some knee pain in Thursday’s downhill training. However, she admitted that she didn’t quite execute to her fullest potential.

“I always have the highest hope...that it’s easy to come back and get on the podium, but things have to go my way,” Vonn said. “I didn’t execute as I had hoped so therefore I didn’t have the best result. Tomorrow and Sunday are two more chances, I know how to execute, I just need to actually do it.”

Up next, another downhill is scheduled for Saturday and the weather forecast is favorable for the women to run the entire length of the Olympia delle Tofane Course. The women will then race super-G Sunday, with current super-G standings leader Mikaela Shiffrin (Avon, Colo.) is scheduled to start.

“Today was a good place to start and I’ll just fix things for tomorrow and ski the course the way I know how,” Vonn added.

RESULTS
Women’s downhill

HOW TO WATCH
All times EST
*Same-day delayed broadcast
**Next-day broadcast

Friday, Jan. 18
7:00 p.m. - Women’s downhill - Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA - NBCSN*

Saturday, Jan. 19
4:30 a.m. - Women’s downhill - Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
6:30 a.m. - Men’s downhill - Wengen, SUI - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold

Sunday, Jan. 20
4:15 a.m. - Men’s slalom run 1 - Wengen, SUI - OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
5:00 a.m. - Women’s super-G - Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - Men’s slalom run 2 - Wengen, SUI - Olympic Channel-TV, OlympicChannel.com & NBC Sports Gold
7:00 p.m. - Men’s downhill - Wengen, SUI - NBCSN**
8:00 p.m. - Women’s downhill - Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA - NBCSN**
9:00 p.m. - Women’s super-G - Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA - NBCSN*

All streams are available via desktop (NBCSports.com/Live, NBCSports.com/Gold andOlympicChannel.com) as well as mobile, tablet and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold app and Olympic Channel app are available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass.