The first alpine skiing world championships to be held in the United States in 26 years started Monday in Vail and Beaver Creek, Colorado.
The first event of the two-week championship was Tuesday鈥檚 women鈥檚 super-G. Hometown favorite and super-G overall standings leader Lindsey Vonn took third place, . (Tiger Woods, Vonn鈥檚 boyfriend, was in attendance.) Intermittent gusty winds created challenging conditions for some skiers, including Vonn.
鈥淚 definitely had a pretty strong headwind right out the starting gate, the first couple of gates,鈥 Vonn told the Denver Post. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit hard to make up that time. I fought my way down, and in the bottom part where there wasn鈥檛 any wind, I was pretty fast.鈥 Vonn will now aim to get back on the podium in Friday鈥檚 downhill.
Other American skiers are looking to put together strong performances on their home turf. Ted Ligety, the reigning Olympic and world champion in giant slalom, will likely shoot for a fifth world championship in the super-G, giant slalom, and super combined. Nineteen-year-old Olympic slalom gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin will try to take home a medal in next week鈥檚 slalom and giant slalom while racing in her hometown.
Six-time Olympic gold medalist Bode Miller confirmed that he will make his season debut in Wednesday鈥檚 super-G and this weekend鈥檚 downhill after undergoing surgery in November and missing the first half of the season, .