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Lindsey Vonn's right knee is healing quicker than her feelings over a world championship race she says should have been called off.
The four-time overall World Cup champion remains unhappy about how she suffered a season-ending injury — two shredded ligaments and a broken bone — at the world championships in Schladming, Austria. She believes organizers should have postponed the super-G race Feb. 5 because of deteriorating course conditions.
In a conference call Friday, Vonn said she "did not think it was safe" to race on the soft snow and that "athletes' safety should come first."
"I do not think the jury made the right call," said Vonn, who underwent surgery to repair the ACL and MCL nearly two weeks ago. "It was definitely not safe to run with that fog."
The start of the super-G was delayed by 31/2 hours because of fog hanging over the course. During that time, conditions dramatically changed, said Vonn, who noted that she inspected the hill early in the morning.
Soon after her crash, Atle Skaardal, women's race director for the International Ski Federation, defended the decision to go ahead with the event, saying, "I don't see that any outside factors played a role in this accident."
Vonn disagreed. She hit a jump along the course faster than anyone else and flew a lot farther, landing in a patch of snow that was much softer. Her right ski abruptly stopped and then buckled.
"I feel like that loose snow was 100 percent the reason why I crashed," she said.
Maze one win away from record
Tina Maze is a downhill victory away from history.
The 29-year-old from Slovenia can become only the third woman to win all five disciplines in a single season with a victory Saturday, matching Austria's Petra Kronberger (1990-91) and Croatia's Janica Kostelic (2005-06) in clinching a single-season sweep of slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super-combined and super-G.
"It's an amazing season and now I'm also skiing well in downhill," said Maze, who was fastest in training Thursday. "I was working for that and now my goals are coming true. So I'm really proud."