Lindsey Vonn ready to test injured left knee in Olympic downhill training run. 'Let’s go get it!!'

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — A week after rupturing the ACL in her left knee, Lindsey Vonn inspected the Olympic downhill course with other racers Friday a couple of hours before the opening training session in her pursuit of gold at the age of 41.

Vonn is planning to compete at the Milan Cortina Games with a large brace covering her knee. She has been clear since her crash last week in Switzerland that she would go forward despite an injury that many athletes would consider a season- or even a career-ender.

“Nothing makes me happier! No one would have believed I would be here,” Vonn wrote on social media as the sun came out in Cortina below the Olympia delle Tofane course after a several days of clouds and snow . “But I made it!! I’m here, I’m smiling and no matter what, I know how lucky I am. I’m not going to waste this chance. Let’s go get it!!”

The American star had a partial titanium replacement inserted in her right knee in 2024 and then returned to ski racing last season after nearly six years of retirement. She crashed during the final World Cup downhill before the Olympics in Crans-Montana last Friday. She was airlifted off the course only to post on social media later that day: “My Olympic dream is not over.”

With Thursday’s opening training session canceled due to heavy snowfall, there were two sessions remaining — Friday and Saturday — before Sunday’s downhill race. She had the No. 10 bib, meaning she would be the 10th skier on the course during Friday's training.

Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Lindsey Vonn and coach Aksel Lund Svindal, left, ahead of an alpine ski, women's downhill official training, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

United States' Lindsey Vonn concentrates ahead of an alpine ski, women's downhill official training, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

United States' Lindsey Vonn leaves after a press conference by the U.S. ski team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Race officials prepare the course ahead of an alpine ski, women's downhill official training, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)

MOSCOW (AP) — A deputy chief of Russian military intelligence was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, 64 was shot several time by an unidentified assailant at an apartment building in Moscow's northwest and hospitalized, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

Petrenko didn’t say who could be behind the attack on Alekseyev, who has served as the first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence since 2011. He was decorated with the Hero of Russia medal for his role in Moscow's military campaign in Syria and in June 2023 was filmed speaking to mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin when his Wagner Group seized the military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don during his botched mutiny,

The shooting came a day after Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators wrapped up two days of talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine. The Russian delegation was led by the military intelligence chief, Adm. Igor Kostyukov.

President Vladimir Putin was informed about the attack, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who added that law enforcement agencies need to step up protection of senior military officers during the conflict in Ukraine.

Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them. It has not yet commented on the shooting of Alekseyev.

In December, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.

In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building just outside Moscow. A suspected perpetrator was quickly arrested.

Days after Moskalik’s killing, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes” although he didn’t mention Moskalik’s name.

In December 2024, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.

Investigators leave an apartment building where deputy chief of Russian military intelligence Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was shot and wounded, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)