Heavy snow in Austria, Lindsey Vonn's World Cup season debut postponed

American Lindsey Vonn's planned World Cup season debut has been postponed for a week after heavy snow forced the cancellation of speed races in Austria. The winner of 82 women's World Cup races had planned to start a downhill in St Anton on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday. World Cup organisers rescheduled the downhill for the Italian resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo on Jan. 18, before another downhill on the 19th and a super-G on the 20th. The St. Anton Super-G has yet to be rescheduled.

Vonn, a four-times World Cup overall champion and the most successful female ski racer of all time, is four races short of equalling the all-time record held by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark. She injured her knee in Super-G training at Copper Mountain, Colorado, last November and has not raced since the end of last season. The American has said she plans to retire at the end of the 2018-19 season, although she could delay that to compete in the Canadian resort of Lake Louise one more time after missing out last year. She is also expected to compete in the world championships in Are, Sweden, next month. 

(With inputs from agencies.)