Twenty years on from her world championship debut, there was no fairytale ending for US star Lindsey Vonn in the women's team combined in Saalbach on Tuesday.
But one of global sport's most recognisable figures insisted she was hoping for a more successful Olympic hurrah at next year's Milan/Cortina d'Ampezzo Games.
Vonn struggled down the downhill section of the team combined, finishing a massive 2.54sec off teammate Lauren Macuga's lead pace.
The deficit was too much for Vonn's combined partner AJ Hurt to make up in the slalom, and the pair finished 16th.
"It was not a fast run!" said Vonn, in her comeback after retiring following a downhill bronze at the 2019 Are world champs.
A raft of former skiers and commentators have openly questioned Vonn's sanity and life following her decision to come out of retirement, made possible after a titanium reconstruction of her knee.
Vonn has called the finger-wagging "inappropriate and disrespectful", hinting she had been picked upon because of being a woman.
But she added there will always be critics and that a life without "haters" probably means she's not performing.
- Not gliding fast -
"I honestly can't tell you what is going wrong," she said of her performances in Saalbach, topped by a 15th-placed finish in the downhill, citing equipment issues.
"Right now, technically, I'm skiing better than I was before, but on the gliding, I am not fast, so that's something that I've never had a problem with, and I just need to figure it out.
"I have a year to figure it out, and I think I will, but right now, it's hard to really change your entire set-up while you're racing the world championships."
Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion with 82 World Cup victories to her name, made her world champs debut in Bormio in 2005 and went on to win eight medals in nine overall championships.
Those included two golds in 2009 as well as three silvers in 2007 and 2011.
She is hoping her longevity stretches to the Olympics next year, where she predicts the US team should prosper, naming downhill winner Breezy Johnson -- who won the combined with Mikaela Shiffrin -- and super-G bronze medallist Macuga.
"I think everyone stepped it up this year. You know, it's really fun to see when we were training in November, when I first came with the team, the potential.
"We're skiing really, really well. In Cortina, these girls all have capabilities of being on the podium, which is a matter of putting the pieces together when it counts.
"I have nothing but positive things to say about my team, and I am really excited for the Olympics next year because across the board, we have a lot of talent and a lot of potential.
"I know we're going do incredible things together."
- 'Full throttle' -
Vonn vowed she would be going "full throttle over spring and summer to really get things going".
"It was really important to stand at the starting gate with a clear mind and execute my plan, to feel the butterflies of a big event, and to know that I've done what I came to do," she said of her Saalbach experience.
"I might not have been as fast as I wanted, but from my side, I executed my game plan.
"And that's the biggest positive that I take away from this week, is that I executed when I needed to. I didn't make any major mistakes."
Vonn said her downfall on the road back to competition had been her lack of patience.
"I really have to try to be kind to myself because even though I have high expectations -- and I was fourth and sixth in my second and third races back -- I still have work to do.
"I am still 40 and I still have a partial knee replacement! I know I expect to do better, and everyone else expects me to do better, but at the same time, I do need a little bit of grace and patience and kindness to just give me some time to figure it all out.
"It's not like I don't know what to do. It's not like I can't do it. I just need time to put all the pieces together."
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