There’s nothing like a previously injured athlete beating the odds and scoring the winning goal, getting the highest score or finishing in first place. It's thrilling and fun for fans to watch their team or favorite athlete attack from the back. This season, there were comebacks all around the FIS World Cup circuit to keep the year interesting—specifically Bode Miller, Aksel Lund Svindal and Lindsey Vonn, to name a few. Together, they kept fans on their toes, unsure of how their favorite skier would perform at a high level again.
All had different results. After back surgery, Miller took his first race run back on the World Cup circuit at the Vail/Beaver Creek World Championships this year, and was leading at the split before a spectacular crash put him back on the sidelines. Svindal also made a comeback attempt at World Champs only five months after rupturing his Achilles tendon, finishing in a respectable sixth place in both super G and downhill. And most know Vonn’s story, in which she came back from two knee injuries and missing the 2014 Olympics to become the winningest woman World Cup star ski racing has ever seen.
Bleacher Report put together an article about about why 2015 was the year of comebacks in skiing, and what comebacks to expect in the future.
NOTE: Although not mentioned in the article, there were other fantastic comebacks on the circuit this year on the U.S. Ski Team. Alice McKennis took a solid 13th place at the Garmisch downhill, the same hill where she broke her leg in 2013. Tommy Ford, who broke his femur freeskiing in 2013, took podium after podium on the NorAm circuit in 2014-15 and snagged a top-20 spot in the World Champs GS.
