US ski star Vonn out of season-opening race

US ski queen Lindsey Vonn said Wednesday she will not compete in the season's opening race this weekend in Austria, as she continues her path to recovery after a horror crash in February. "My training camp in Soelden went very well and I made great progress but I feel that I need more training before I start racing again, which means the Soelden race is not in the cards this year," the Olympic downhill champion said on her website. "Patience is not my strong suit so not racing is very hard for me but it will only make me more excited for the next one. "I will go home to Vail and continue my preparation for the Beaver Creek races and my ultimate goal in February!" said the reigning downhill World Cup winner, who will be looking to add to her trophy cabinet at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.   Vonn, 29, has been out of competition with a knee injury since she suffered a horrid crash in the first race of the ski world championships in February. Speculation was rife whether she would race in Soelden, where she won the giant slalom in 2011, after she made a quicker than expected return to the slopes. But she told journalists recently: "I'm not going to race until I'm absolutely 100 per cent." Vonn will likely make her comeback to the circuit in Beaver Creek, Colorado, which hosts three women's races on November 29-December 1, including her best discipline, the downhill, the US team said in a statement Wednesday. In Vonn's absence, the team will still be strongly represented for the traditional season opener on Saturday with triple world champion Ted Ligety -- who has won the past two editions in Soelden -- leading the pack. Olympic champion Bode Miller will return to the World Cup after sitting out last season, accompanied by slalom world champion Mikaela Shiffrin and Olympic gold medallist Julia Mancuso.   Source: AFP