Weather makes Vonn wait for World Cup comeback

[January 14, 2017]  (Reuters) - Lindsey Vonn, the four times World Cup overall champion, had her race return held up by bad weather at the Austrian resort of Altenmarkt on Saturday with training canceled and a downhill postponed to Sunday.

Training had been wiped out on Thursday and Friday due to heavy snowfall and poor conditions, and another session scheduled for Saturday morning was also scrapped.

The race re-scheduling meant a Combined that had been scheduled for Sunday was canceled.

Organizers said a training run had been scheduled for Sunday at 0930 local (0830 GMT) with the race set for 1215, weather permitting.

The men's Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, which is one of the highlights of the season, also fell victim to heavy snowfalls with nearly half a meter of fresh snow covering the piste.

The FIS website said there was no chance to clear the track, with the snow continuing to fall. Sunday's schedule has a men's slalom.

Vonn, 32, had spoken earlier in the week about her excitement at returning to action after undergoing surgery on a broken upper right arm in November as a result of a training crash in Colorado.

The American, Olympic downhill champion in 2010, has completed an intensive program of rehabilitation over the past months.

She revealed on Facebook this week that she had also suffered severe nerve damage.

"I woke up from surgery and had no function of my entire hand," she said.

"Today I am still struggling to do simple things like put on my ski glove and do my hair, but I'm at a point where I am comfortable with my hand in most situations.

"This has been the hardest recovery of my career to date but thankfully it has taken less time to heal than my knee injuries," she added.

Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. carries her ski after the race has been cancelled due to bad weather conditions. REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler

Vonn won a downhill and Super-G in Altenmarkt last January, surpassing Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell's record for most downhill wins with her 37th victory in that discipline.

In late February 2016, while leading the World Cup standings, Vonn's Alpine ski season and title hopes were ended by a knee injury when she crashed after hitting a patch of soft snow in a super-G race in Andorra.

Winner of 76 World Cup races, she is chasing Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's record of 86.

If Sunday's race is also canceled, Vonn's next chance to race would be a downhill at the German resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen the following weekend.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)

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