2010 Winter Olympics Lindsey Vonn Update: Healthy, Ready For Gold

U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn said she is no longer worried about being unable to compete in the Winter Olympics following a two-and-a-half hour practice session.

Vonn was able to take part in a free ski on Sunday before testing out her shin on the more demanding slalom track. She is scheduled to take part in two more training sessions today, and everything points to her being able to compete in all five alpine events.

"It didn't feel perfect," said Vonn, a three-time Olympian. "I'm still in quite a bit of pain while skiing, but the time off the snow has been incredibly beneficial for me. I needed time to heal and Mother Nature helped me out with that. But now that I've gone out and taken a few runs, I know I can do it.

"I'm ready to get Olympic competition started and I know my teammates are ready to go too."

The training runs were the first for the 25-year-old since she bruised her right shin on Feb. 2.

With four consecutive days of downhill training scrapped due to weather, the U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team is ready to get back to official training on Monday. If all goes well—and Mother Nature cooperates—the start of medal competition will follow with downhill on Wednesday.

Organizers are calling for a split training session around the men's downhill medal event.

The first half will see Vonn skiing full steam from the top of the course to just above the Hot Air finish jump. The second practice run will come after the men's downhill race when Vonn will return to Franz's run and ski the bottom section, starting from the combined slalom start in order to get enough speed for a realistic flight off Hot Air into the finish.

If completed as planned, it will serve as an official training run and allow medal competition to begin Wednesday with downhill.

"Our girls are doing great. We've been training slalom and some super G, powder skiing, sharing our meals together—it's just an awesome atmosphere to be around," said women's Head Coach Jim Tracy. "They're all in a good mindset and looking forward to racing."

But without the incredible effort of the legions of volunteers, Tracy says, training would not be possible.

"We had at least 20 centimeters of snow on the top last night and they had winch cats working the top down to Ladner's Roll," said Tracy.

"Below that, the volunteers are slipped everything wall to wall smoothing everything out. It's supposed to get down to the mid 20's tonight and if that happens everything should freeze up nicely. They are doing the best possible job with the cards they've been dealt and my hat goes off to them."