At the Val d’Isère world championships, Lindsey Vonn won downhill gold in 1:30.31 and completed a golden double. The victory came six days after her super-G title, making these the only two world championship golds of her career.
A delayed race, a decisive run
Weather forced the downhill back one day, and it finally ran on February 9 as the fifth event of the championships. When the Bellevarde course opened, Vonn attacked cleanly and set a time no one could reach.
Switzerland’s Lara Gut took silver in 1:30.83, trailing by 0.52 seconds. Italy’s Nadia Fanchini claimed bronze in 1:30.88, edging fourth-placed Elisabeth Görgl by just 0.05 seconds. Five racers, including Nadia Styger and Dominique Gisin, did not finish the demanding track.
Two golds, six medals, one valley
Those two victories remain the summit of Vonn’s world championship career. She collected six world medals across a decade — from Åre 2007 silvers to Åre 2019 bronze — but she never again topped the podium.
Val d’Isère had long favoured her. She eventually posted seven World Cup podiums and five wins there, on top of the 2009 double gold. The venue became a steady backdrop to her speed success.
Vonn later won Olympic downhill gold in Whistler in 2010, and in 2015 she passed Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s 35-year record for most women’s World Cup wins. A world downhill bronze at Åre in 2019, raced on damaged knees, closed her first act — though she would later return for a podium at Sun Valley and an 83rd World Cup win at St. Moritz in 2025.
Two golden days in the French Alps, separated by a single week, gave a career built on downhill speed its only world championship crowns.
