Vail, CO – Ski racing great Lindsey Vonn has left her home in Vail to return to on-snow training in Europe on Thursday, ending a self-imposed two-week hiatus from the World Cup tour.

Following disappointing results in France last month, the Olympic and four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion headed back to the States to continue her recuperation from a bout of intestinal illness that left her hospitalized in Colorado in November.

“It feels great to be back and I can’t wait to start racing again,” Vonn posted on Facebook on Thursday, generating over 10,000 “likes.”

She anticipates returning to the World Cup tour for a scheduled downhill and super G in St. Anton, Austria, Jan. 12-13. Vonn swept a downhill and super combined during a 2007 stop at the Arlberg resort en route to the first World Cup overall and downhill titles of her career. Should she return at St. Anton she will have missed six World Cup races, and already following her departure she has dropped from fourth to sixth in the overall hunt, now trailing World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia by 725 points.