Skier Lindsey Vonn is delaying her return to the slopes until late November, so she can continue recovering from surgery on her right knee.
Vonn won't participate in Saturday's season-opening race in Austria. The 29-year-old announced her decision after training on the glacier in Soelden for the past week.
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"While I physically feel great, I have decided to not race this weekend, and instead will
focus on returning in Beaver Creek (Nov. 29-Dec. 1)," Vonn told The Associated Press. "I am confident the extra month of training will ultimately put me in the best position to have a successful season."
Vonn, the Olympic downhill champion and four-time World Cup winner, hasn't competed since tearing her anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in a February crash at the world championships in Schladming. Her goal is to compete in top form at the Sochi Olympics in February.
Competing at Beaver Creek was Vonn's original goal, but a training camp in Portillo, Chile, in August made her consider pushing up her timetable.
Vonn has three World Cup giant slalom championships, as well as 29 in downhill, 20 in super-G, two in slalom, and five in combined. She needs three more wins to tie the 62 World Cup race victories of Austrian skier Annemarie Moser-Proell.
"My training camp in Soelden went very well and I made great progress but I feel that I need more training before I start racing again, which means the Soelden race is not in the cards this year," Vonn said on her website. "Patience is not my strong suit so not racing is very hard for me but it will only make me more excited for the next one. I will go home to Vail and continue my preparation for the Beaver Creek races and my ultimate goal in February!"
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