BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Lindsey Vonn flew down the Birds of Prey course one last time as a forerunner Sunday before flying off to Switzerland.
Next up, her first World Cup race in nearly six years as the 40-year-old makes her return to ski racing. She will take part in a pair of super-G races in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
“I have the butterflies of excitement — and that’s fun. I love that feeling,” Vonn said Sunday after trying out the course before the race. “I like being in the start. I love the countdown. I (freaking) get amped up. I like having to execute when you have to and everything’s on the line.”
Vonn didn’t have the necessary points at the time to participate in the World Cup races in Beaver Creek over the weekend. Instead, she tested out the Birds of Prey downhill course Saturday and the super-G track Sunday before the racers to make sure everything was running smoothly. She then got on the radio and delivered a scouting report — where to push, where to tuck, where to take it easy — to her teammates.
Her intel on the hill extended to good friend and fellow Red Bull sponsor Sofia Goggia, who used Vonn's report to find the fastest line in winning t he super-G on Sunday. The Italian racer and Vonn shared a moment after Goggia came down in first.
“I love her. For me, she’s a really important person,” Goggia said of Vonn. ’She’s so kind. We shared a lot of races. I’m excited for her to be on the World Cup.”
Ditto for her teammates: “She has so much knowledge,” said Lauren Macuga, who was 12th in the super-G after taking fourth in the downhill. “It elevates our whole team a lot.”
Vonn didn't go full speed on either day — about 85% on Saturday before cranking it up a bit to 90% on Sunday.
“Because obviously I’m racing super-G next weekend, so I needed to be a little bit more with it,” Vonn said. “I'd say it was a great day.”
Next weekend will be her first World Cup race since a “DNF” — didn't not finish — in a super-G at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 20, 2019. Her last major race was a month later, when she took third in the downhill during the world championships in Sweden.
When Vonn left the tour, she had 82 World Cup wins — the record for a woman at the time and within reach of the all-time Alpine mark of 86 held by Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark. The women’s record held by Vonn was eclipsed in January 2023 by Mikaela Shiffrin, whose 99 wins are more than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport.
An array of injuries, including to her knee, sent Vonn into retirement. But a partial knee replacement last April has her feeling good enough again to speed down the hill.
“The last two years of my career, I was in survival mode,” Vonn said. “I’m stronger. I don’t think about my knee. I think about how I’m going to execute the race."
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Forerunner Lindsey Vonn finishes a run before a women's World Cup super-G ski race, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Beaver Creek, Colo. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Forerunner Lindsey Vonn skis before a women's World Cup super-G ski race, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Beaver Creek, Colo. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Forerunner Lindsey Vonn finishes a run before a women's World Cup super-G ski race, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Beaver Creek, Colo. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Forerunner Lindsey Vonn finishes a run before a women's World Cup super-G ski race, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Beaver Creek, Colo. (AP Photo/John Locher)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 46 people including several children.
The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state.
The Irish Cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies it.
“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” said Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Micheal Martin.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar's statement on the embassy closure said “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy “deeply regrettable.” He added on X: “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”
Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.
A large explosion lit up the southern Gaza skyline on Sunday night. An Israeli airstrike hit a school and killed at least 16 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken. There was no immediate Israeli military statement.
In the north, an airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where casualties were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter and a father and his son, the hospital said.
And in Gaza City, at least 17 people including six women and five children were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, according to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said a bandaged Yahia al-Yazji, who grieved for his wife and daughter. "I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone. My wife was three months pregnant.” His hand rested on a body wrapped in a blanket on the floor.
Israel's military in a statement said it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.
Another Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Ahmed al-Lawh, in central Gaza, a hospital and the Qatari-based TV station said.
The strike hit a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, Al-Awda Hospital said. Also killed were three civil defense workers including the local head of the agency, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The civil defense is Gaza's main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.
One of the bodies was covered with an orange work jacket marked “ambulance” in English.
“We, the civil defense, are carrying out humanitarian work like in any country in the world. Why are we being targeted?” said colleague Kerem Al Dalou.
Israel’s military said it struck a militant command center embedded in the civil defense offices.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking well over 200 hostage.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says over half of the dead have been women and children.
Most of Gaza's population of over 2 million has been displaced, often multiple times. The hospitals that are still functioning say they lack medicines, fuel and other basic supplies, while aid groups warn of widespread hunger.
The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told CBS on Sunday that the U.N. agency was able to get just two trucks of supplies into Gaza in November, citing insecurity there.
“We need a ceasefire, and we need it now,” she said. “We can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death.”
Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Palestinians mourn over the bodies of civil defense workers victims of an Israeli army strike in the Nuseirat camp, at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.16, 2024. Four cicivil defence workers were killed according to Palestinian civil defense and health ministry.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
A dead child is carried into the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah after an Israeli army strike in the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry the body of a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
