Marlies Schild wins WCup slalom for 1st win after breaking leg, injured Lindsey Vonn is 18th

Schild wins WCup slalom, Vonn finishes 18th

LIENZ, Austria — Marlies Schild won a World Cup slalom Tuesday for her first victory since breaking a leg, while Lindsey Vonn finished 18th after bruising her left arm.

The Austrian led after the opening run and finished in an aggregate time of 1 minute, 57.65 seconds. She led Sandrine Aubert of France by 1.83 seconds and Kathrin Zettel of Austria was third.

Vonn, the overall World Cup champion, crashed during the giant slalom Monday and injured her arm. Wearing a brace, Vonn said she felt “a lot of pain” but never considered skipping the race. She finished 4.42 seconds back but kept her lead in the overall standings.

“I wanted to race. That’s the way I am. I wanted to fight,” Vonn said. “If there is any way I can ski, I will race.”

Schild, the 2007 and ‘08 World Cup slalom champion, missed all of last season after breaking her leg in preseason training.

“This is definitely the most beautiful win of my career,” said Schild, who earned her 21st career victory. “I had of lots of hesitations over the past year, but now I am extremely happy.”

She returned to the World Cup circuit with a sixth-place finish last month in Levi, Finland.

“Some of my doubts from these past 14 months were still in me in the first run,” Schild said. “This was the first time I felt really well again during the race.”

Schild held a commanding lead after her flawless opening run on the partly icy Schlossberg course, leaving teammate Zettel 1.02 seconds behind.

Vonn had no obvious mistakes but was well behind Schild in both runs.

“Sure it wasn’t my best. I did what I could,” Vonn said. “I am wearing a brace. It protects but it’s not really helping. My arm hurts a lot. Every time I hit a gate it was really painful in my wrist. My ribs, my side, pretty much my whole left side hurts a bit.”

Vonn skied the final part of last season with a protective covering on her right thumb after cutting a tendon on a broken champagne bottle in Val d’Isere in February.

“This is like the world championships Part II,” Vonn said. “Though my arm now hurts more than my thumb did last year.”

World slalom champion Maria Riesch was 3.97 seconds behind Schild in 14th place, enough to retain the lead in the discipline standings.