The pair were both surprise starters with Gut, last year’s winner, declaring herself fit on Friday after a long knee injury lay off and Vonn, also struggling at 33 to recover from lingering pain from a broken arm, announcing her prence on Thursday.
Italy’s Manuela Molgg took the first, wind-shortened run in just 55.57sec, a slender 0.12sec ahead of World Cup overall title holder Mikaela Shiffrin and 0.33 ahead of Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg.
Gut, who announced her return saying “You can’t cage a lion” missed a gate near the second time check already trailing the lead by over a second in the technical event.
Vonn finished 3.31sec off the pace and failed to make the cut for the second leg later Saturday.
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