Vonn in 8th on return

Lindsey Vonn recorded her first World Cup win at Lake Louise on Saturday since returning from devastating knee injuries that have sidelined the US skier for the past 11 months.

Vonn had finished three places outside of her targeted top-five finish on her competitive return on Friday but rediscovered her best form only 24 hours later. The 30-year-old led the field by just 0.49 seconds ahead of teammate Stacey Cook while Julia Mancuso completed the United States clean sweep by finishing third.

It was the first US podium sweep in the alpine World Cup.

"I always believed in myself to come back but I never really knew until today. And today I'm finally back at the top. ... It's an amazing day," said Vonn later.

Lake Louise has been dubbed "Lake Lindsey" due to the skier's impressive record of World Cup victories at the resort in the Canadian Rockies, and the second most successful female skier of all time added win No.15 despite having spent all year off the snow.

Vonn tore two ligaments in her right knee in a crash at the World Championships in Austria in February 2013, and her knee gave out again with devastating consequences in her previous last race at Val d'Isere in France a year ago.

The injury prevented Vonn from defending her Olympic downhill title in Sochi earlier this year and she has credited her boyfriend, golfer Tiger Woods, with helping her through rehab. Woods also recently came back after injury, but has endured a far less triumphant return to professional sport than his partner.

"I competed and Linds won," the golf star said on Twitter on Saturday after overcoming illness to post a three-under-par 69 in the third round of the Hero World Challenge in Florida, where he remained in last place on the leaderboard.

Vonn now only needs two more World Cup victories to equal the record set in 1980 by Austrian Anne-Marie Moser-Proell and the American does not have long to wait for the next opportunity, with the Super-G to be raced on Sunday.

There may be some nervous onlookers among her coaching staff, however; it was in this event 19 months ago that Vonn first injured her knee.

pwh/jh (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)