Val d’Isere, France – In the latest twist in Lindsey Vonn’s pre-Olympic knee saga, the U.S. ski racing star skied out of Saturday’s downhill in Val d’Isere, wincing in pain from her damaged knee.

Despite the setback, Vonn remained nonplussed.

“I didn’t hurt myself more than I’m already hurt,” she asserted. “It was a small compression, and it was fully loaded on the right ski. I had no chance of making that gate, unfortunately. I’m going to stick to a similar plan that I was on before. I just need to be more careful of how many races I do. So I’m going to play it safe and race really minimal races. Probably one or two before the Olympics.”

Swiss racer Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden celebrated the first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup victory of her career.  Reigning overall champion Tina Maze of Slovenia was second ahead of Austrian Cornelia Huetter.

North Conway, N.H.’s Leanne Smith survived the bumpy Val d’Isere track to lead the U.S. Ski Team with a tie for 14^th on a course that bounced eight racers, including four Americans. In addition to Vonn, Stacey Cook was in the podium hunt when the washboard snow sent her sailing into the nets. Cook, racing with a minor fracture in her arm sustained in training earlier in the week, skied away without injury.

Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., was 21^st.

“They were going and they were charging. They wanted to make a statement,” said U.S. Ski Team women’s alpine Head Coach, Alex Hoedlmoser. “Today those girls were in the hunt again, Stacey, Laurenne and Leanne all the way until the bottom part. So the skiing was there and the splits were there sometimes. Stacey, Leanne and Laurenne after a minute were actually faster or as fast as the winner. At least we have speed. Now we just have to bring it all down the hill to the finish.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Val d’Isere, France – Dec. 21, 2013
Women’s Downhill