US star Vonn happy after return to slopes

Reigning Olympic downhill ski champion Lindsey Vonn returned to the slopes Thursday for the first time since reinjuring her right knee in a crash last week and declared it "awesome". A day after saying in a television interview that she was confident she would be able to ski in February at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Vonn posted on her Facebook page that she had skiied at Vail on the US Thanksgiving holiday, her first time on snow since falling 10 days earlier. "First day back on snow since my crash and it was awesome!" Vonn said. "I'm very thankful for many things this year (family, loved ones, great fans) but at this moment I'm happy to be on the mountain doing what I love - skiing!!" Vonn signed off with the hashtag "I WILL" but did not say when she would return to competitive racing for the first time since first tearing a right knee ligament last February at the World Championships in Austria. Vonn re-tore her surgically repaired right knee ligament when she fell last Tuesday at nearby Copper Mountain during a training run. Last week, Vonn said she was hoping to return next week at World Cup events in Lake Louise, Canada. She had originally targeted her return for this week's events at nearby Beaver Creek, which begin on Friday. "don't worry guys, this is only a temporary setback," Vonn posted last week. "Nothing will keep me from picking myself back up and continuing to fight for my dreams." Vonn, the girlfriend of 14-time major golf champion Tiger Woods, won World Cup overall titles in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 and with 59 race wins she is three shy of matching the women's World Cup record owned by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell. Source: AFP