Lindsey Vonn is finally ready to open her injury-delayed final full season on the skiing World Cup circuit – and she admitted she couldn’t be happier to do it in Cortina d’Ampezzo at a news conference on Wednesday.

Vonn has won 12 of her 82 World Cup victories in Cortina.

The resort is also where Vonn earned her first World Cup podium result back in 2004 and where she broke the all-time women’s wins record with victory number 63 in 2015.

Vonn, who injured her left knee a week before her scheduled first race in Lake Louise, Alberta, in November, has had only eight days of skiing to prepare for this weekend’s races – downhills Friday and Saturday followed by a super-G on Sunday.

Vonn needs five more wins to break the all-time World Cup record of 86 victories held by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.

See what she had to say in our video