Alpine skier Nicol Delago wins Tarvisio downhill as veteran Lindsey Vonn takes another podium

TARVISIO, Italy – Italy’s Nicol Delago won a foggy women’s World Cup downhill on home snow in Tarvisio on Jan 17 as age-defying US Alpine ski great Lindsey Vonn powered to her fifth podium in five races.

The victory, in 1min 46.28sec with bib No. 3, was the 30-year-old Val Gardena skier’s first on the World Cup circuit and her first podium since she was third in Saalbach in March 2024.

Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann was sixth out of the start hut and took second place, 0.20 slower than Delago.

Vonn, racing to third from 11th, was a further 0.06 behind on a Di Prampero piste shrouded in thick fog on the middle section.

Delago’s younger sister Nadia, downhill bronze medallist at the 2022 Olympics, finished 10th with the pair embracing at the finish.

Vonn, in astonishing form as she prepares for an Olympic comeback at the Feb 6-22 Milano Cortina Games at the age of 41, stretched her lead in the downhill standings to 144 points over Germany’s Emma Aicher.

The American now has two wins, a second place and two thirds from the five downhills this season, while Delago has six podiums from her entire career.

There is one more downhill to come, in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana on Jan 30, before the women head for the Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Tarvisio also hosts a women’s super-G on Jan 18. REUTERS