Lindsey Vonn concludes ‘impossible’ comeback at 40 with first podium since 2018 | Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn concluded her comeback season at the age of 40 with a second-place finish in a World Cup super-G race Sunday that was won by Swiss standout Lara Gut-Behrami.

Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. The American pumped her poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the crowd roared in approval.

“It’s the last race of the season. I just put it all on the line. This is the level that I know I can ski. I know I can even do better than that,” she told NBC Sport.

It was Vonn’s first World Cup podium spot since March 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement. “Call me naive, but I believe in the impossible,” she said when first announcing her comeback.

It was Vonn’s 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria.

Vonn says she hopes to race for Team USA at next year’s Winter Olympics before retiring for good. “It’s been a rough season of people saying that I can’t, that I’m too old, that I’m not good enough anymore. I think I proved everyone wrong,” Vonn, who has three Olympic medals to her name, said on Sunday.

Gut-Behrami finished in a time of one minute and 12.35 seconds – edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds – to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Italian racer Federica Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday’s race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind the time of Gut-Behrami.

The final season-long super-G standings ended up with Gut-Behrami in first, Brignone in second and Sofia Goggia of Italy in third.

On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall title.