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Austrian skier Veith thrilled to be back to winning ways

Austria's Anna Veith celebrates after winning the women's Super-G race in Val-d'Isere, on December 17, 2017

Austrian ski star Anna Veith said she was thrilled to be back to winning ways after a long injury lay-off, just in time for February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Veith, who formerly raced under her maiden name of Fenninger, sustained a devastating knee injury in October 2015 that saw her sit out the entire 2015/16 season. Two surgeries and a lot of rehabilitation later, after a short-lived comeback in January 2017 and the St Mortiz world championships, the 28-year-old is again back and revelling in the fact she can still win. "It has been a real mental challenge," she said. "Physically I have worked a lot. "I wasn't prepared well enough for racing and after surgery I realised the most important thing was to be in good shape." Veith, who finished 15th in Saturday's super-G won by Lindsey Vonn, timed 1min 05.77sec down the OK course to win on Sunday, her American rival withdrawing with knee pain. It was the Austrian's 15th victory on the World Cup circuit and third in super-G. The timing of her return to form could not be better for Veith who was overall World Cup champion in 2014 and 2015, and is also a three-time world gold medallist. She will also head to South Korea as defending super-G champion, having triumphed in Sochi in 2014. "That was first step to get there because our team is pretty strong," Veith said of what should be an extremely tough Austrian quartet of racers. "The most important thing is to get into perfect shape for February and defend my title." Veith added: "My dream was to get back on to the top (of the podium) and I achieved that today, so it's perfect. "I showed my best and now I know that everything's possible and that's a really good feeling. "I want to work like that in the future and in other disciplines." - Doubts over return - Veith said the rehabilitation had made her doubt her ability to return at the highest level. "When I think back to the days when I was on the ground... After injury there were so many days I didn't know whether I could get back into race mode. "When you feel your body's right you have to be very mentally strong. "Now I know I have that race mode. Now I know I can do this, like today." Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather claimed second place, but confessed to skiing what she expected to be diagnosed as a broken left hand sustained in a fall on Saturday. "Yesterday when I crashed I went down on my hand and shoulder into the snow," she said. "My hand's black and blue. I have to skip Courchevel, I can't hold my pole and I have to go to the doctors tomorrow for an x-ray." Italian Sofia Goggia rounded out the podium in third, 24 hours after claiming second in the opening super-G. The Italian mirrored many racers' happiness in seeing the popular Veith back racing. "I'm super happy Anna won," she said. "It's really nice to see her back. "I'm happy with my podium. I'm still progressing, but I'll take it, the second podium. "I think I'm on the right way." Goggia will race in Courchevel on Tuesday, but played down any concerns that two super-Gs and a giant slalom in four days was too much. "No! That's the paradox of skiing, races only last a minute!" she said.