SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Lindsey Vonn finally put all the pieces together since returning from a long retirement and skied to second place Sunday in the World Cup Finals Super-G, while Lauren Macuga DNF’d pushing her limits.The winner, Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, said she found happiness skiing again.“I was looking for that the entire season,” she said. She won by 1.29 seconds over Vonn in the 40 year old’s best run since returning this season from retirement over five years ago.Lindsey Vonn is emotionally overcome after receiving her second place medal. She last competed on the World Cup February 2019. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordVonn said she hadn’t “felt like I put all the pieces together” until Sunday. “This is the level that I know I can ski. I know I can even do better than that,” she told NBC Sports. “It’s been a rough season of people saying that I can’t, that I’m too old, that I’m not good enough anymore. I think I proved everyone wrong.”Joy hasn’t been an issue this season for Vonn’s fellow Park City resident Macuga, feeling she needed to go big in this race, maybe big enough to risk pushing apart those pieces.“I was all pumped up, like ready to go all out,” Macuga, 22, said immediately after her run and still trying to catch her breath. “I’ve been working to find that limit all season long. I was charging up top and just on the other side of that limit, the wrong side.” She laughed. “It was just nice to know I was trying my best, and yeah, you’ve got to have your first DNF at some point.”She greeted her sisters Alli and Sam, along with dad Dan and mom Amy with hugs and good humor at the bottom.The International Olympic Games website reported:Gut-Behrami produced one of the skis of her life to take Super G victory at the Sun Valley FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Finals and snatch the discipline crystal globe.Vonn delighted the home crowd with second place, becoming the oldest woman to score a World Cup podium finish, with overall World Cup winner Federica Brignone third.Reigning Olympic champion Gut-Behrami went into the race five points behind Brignone in the standings. A win would secure her a sixth Super G season title and her third in succession.Then came Vonn, who was cheered all the way down the course on her 408th World Cup start. The 40-year-old superstar was never up with Gut-Behrami’s pace, but skied exceptionally well and a podium place looked like a possibility.A fine bottom half saw the home hero cross the line 1.29 adrift for second place ahead of Brignone. The stands erupted with Vonn punching the air with delight as she secured her first podium finish in just over six years. Moments later, the tears came as she realized the enormity of her achievement in what may be her last race on U.S. snow.“I’m just so happy today,” Gut-Behrami told FIS afterwards. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve finally found the happiness again of skiing. Everything is easier when you’re enjoying what you’re doing.“I’ve been struggling a lot to find the meaning of skiing. I was just skiing but not enjoying what I was doing … always finding problems and not solutions. Since arriving here, I love the mountain and I love the slope and I really enjoyed what I was doing so thanks to everyone. I hope next year, I can again ski with fun.”Gut-Behrami will meet Brignone again in Tuesday’s giant slalom with Italian star Brignone hoping to overturn a 20-point series deficit on leader Alice Robinson.Macuga plans to ski in this race for the first time, as well.The men’s Super-G was much less dramatic, at least from an American standpoint.Austrians Lukas Feurstein and Raphael Haaser finished one-two, and Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland came in third.The first U.S. skier was Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 13th, followed by Jared Goldberg in 19th, or last. Five other skiers had DNFs.Mom Amy, in the white coat, is always there, win, lose or DNF, for Lauren Macuga. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordThe Macuga family savors the moment at the base of the Super-G course. L/R Sam the ski jumper, Lauren the speed racer, Alli the mogul skier, mom Amy and dad Dan.Lauren Macuga greets her sisters Alli and Sam after her Super-G race. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordU.S. Super-G competitors and Park City residents Lauren Macuga and Lindsey Vonn sign autographs after the race. Parkites Lindsey Vonn and Lauren Macuga enjoy the moment after the Super-G. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordMatthew Prince awards Lindsey Vonn her second place medal in the Super-G. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordAt the podium for the women’s Super-G are second place finisher Lindsey Vonn, winner Lara Gut-Behrami, and third place finisher Federica Brignone. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordThe U.S. ski team at the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, took a team photo after the women’s Super-G. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordScan Mar 23, 2025 at 3.29 PMDownload….SUN VALLEY, Idaho — With the winds subsided and community volunteers slipping the Super-G course into early Sunday, optimism is running high that the Super-G will go off as planned.Park City’s Lauren Macuga and Lindsey Vonn will race for the U.S. women. On the men’s side, Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Jared Goldberg will compete for the United States.The women’s race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., and the men are set to start at 12:30 p.m.“This hill is unique on the World Cup. It’s super steep the whole way. Every single turn is a little bit different,” said Ted Ligety, who is helping cover the men’s race for NBC at the bottom. “There’s a lot of different terrain to it. There’s never a flat spot to relax, so it’s in your face the whole way.”He said it is unusual for men and women to ski the exact same course for all the races, as well. “That’s pretty special,” he said.Sunday morning at Sun Valley’s Challenger course late preparations are underway. With the winds subsided from Saturday, optimism was very high Sunday morning that the Super-G event will go as planned at the FIS Alpine World Cup finals. Four Americans will be competing: Parkites Lauren Macuga (#11) and Lindsey Vonn(#17) on the women’s side. For the U.S. men’s squad, Ryan Cochran-Siegle (#3) and Jared Goldberg (#16) will be competing. Credit: David Jackson/Park Record….Saturday, March 22SUN VALLEY, Idaho — The downhill races have been canceled due to high wind. The races had been delayed after overnight snow.“Wind’s a problem when you are jumping, especially when they are getting as much air as they were off that Frontier jump,” said Austin Savaria, an assistant coach with the men’s speed team. “A lot of things can go wrong with one big gust of wind.”The skiers are disappointed, he said.“It’s brutal for the team. It’s brutal for the whole community,” Savaria said. He coached for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation before joining the U.S. team. “I mean, the effort these guys put in to make the conditions of the snow perfect. It can’t be any better. So to see some gust of wind cancel a race like that, it’s pretty tough for everyone.”A community of volunteers had helped beat back the effects of the overnight snowfall, with hundreds slipping the downhill course all through the night to keep it clear of snow. Some people reportedly slipped over 100,000 vertical feet in the effort. But unpredictable wind gusts were a whole ‘nother matter on Saturday afternoon.The World Cup Final crowd would be disappointed, along with the racers, at the cancellation Saturday afternoon of the downhill races. Gusting winds made the course too risky. Credit: David Jackson | Park RecordSki team spokesperson Courtney Harkins said the downhill awards will be given to the athletes based on season standings. That puts Lauren Macuga, of Park City, in fourth for the season and just off the podium. The season World Cup downhill leaders for the women are Federica Brignone of Italy in first with 384 points, Cornelia Huetter of Austria second with 368, and Sofia Goggia of Italy in third with 350. Macuga has 230.For the men, it’s Marco Odermatt of Switzerland leading the way with 606 points, Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland in second with 522, and Alexis Monney of Switzerland in third with 327.Sunday looks like a good day for the Super-G, however. Workers will prep the course and get it ready.“It should be good to go tomorrow,” Savaria said.This is the starting gate for the Super-G course at Sun Valley.Credit: Michael Ritucci/For The Park RecordCredit: Michael Ritucci/For The Park RecordCredit: Michael Ritucci/For The Park Record…SUN VALLEY, Idaho — High winds have delayed the downhill races a half hour, so far. Organizers announced the downhill will start lower on the mountain at the Super-G position, a couple of hundred feet below the normal downhill starting gate.The crowds are gathering in Sun Valley for the first downhill World Cup Finals race in the United States since 2017.….SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Overnight snowfall has delayed the downhill races Saturday to the afternoon.The men’s new start time is 2 p.m., and the women’s is 3 p.m.The FIS World Cup finals will be underway Saturday afternoon at Sun Valley. Skiers and snowcats packed the downhill course, Challenger, Saturday morning after several inches of springtime snow blanketed the course overnight. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordThe forecast is for flurries until 10 a.m., then windy with gusts up to 26 mph. Two to three inches of snow are expected for Saturday.Under the revised program:Men’s jury inspection: 11 a.m. Men’s race inspection: 11:30-12:15 Women’s race inspection: Noon to 1 p.m. Men’s start time: 2 p.m. Women’s start time: 3 p.m. The FIS World Cup finals will be underway Saturday afternoon at Sun Valley. Skiers scraping the downhill course, Challenger, Saturday morning after several inches of springtime snow blanketed the course overnight. Credit: David Jackson/Park Record …Friday, March 21SUN VALLEY, Idaho — The 25 best men and women alpine skiers on the planet were poised Friday evening to race this weekend and into next week, drawing bib numbers in an evening ceremony for the first races. The FIS World Cup Finals have arrived at last to Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain on a run named Challenger, which was reshaped this past summer specifically for this event. Saturday is downhill day, with the Super-G running Sunday. The downhill version of the course stretches nearly 7,500 feet with a vertical drop of 2,736 feet. The men begin at 11 a.m., followed by the women at 12:30 p.m.The U.S. women’s speed team will put forth Parkites Lauren Macuga and Lindsey Vonn, Wyoming native and Rowmark Ski Academy alum Breezy Johnson and Portland, Oregon, native Jacqueline Wiles. On the men’s side, Burlington, Vermont, native Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Bryce Bennett of Truckee, California, will compete in the downhill and Super-G.This will be the first time the “Super Bowl” of alpine skiing on US soil since 2017, when Aspen Mountain was the host venue. Last year the event was held at Saalbach-Hinterglem, Austria.The resort was awarded the event in the spring of 2024. They broke ground on July 1 to begin sculpting an all-new venue for the World Cup Finals. In addition to moving earth, they also added safety netting, 34 new snow guns, a new digital timing system, and removed many trees. In the words of the editorial board of Sun Valley’s Mountain Express: “The area hasn’t hosted anything like this since 1975, when pencil-thin long skis were the order of the day.”The World Cup Finals are the culmination of six months of worldwide travel week in, and week out. The current overall standings have Marco Odermatt of Switzerland leading the men and countrywoman Lara Gut-Behrami at the top of the women’s standings.Friday night brought hundreds of fans to the storied Swan Valley Ice rink to watch the bib draw. The top 10 skiers selected their bib numbers by a random draw for Saturday. Macuga drew No. 13, and Breezy Johnson 11. Later in the evening, the remaining U.S. skiers were assigned their bibs. Jacqueline Wiles got 16 and Lindsey Vonn will start in position 19.Dressed in a red, white and blue sweater Parkite Lauren Macuga learned that she will be wearing bib #13 Saturday afternoon in the women’s downhill at the World Cup final. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordThe two U.S. men’s skiers, Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Bryce Bennett, will start 17th and 18th.Thousands gathered around the Sun Valley ice rink on the back side of the Sun Valley Lodge for the bib-draw ceremony Friday night. Credit: David Jackson/Park RecordThe post Lindsey Vonn takes second in the World Cup Finals Super-G, while Macuga DNFs pushing limits; ‘I was charging up top’ appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less