Sitting in the middle of the Cortina course Sunday following her second fall in four days at the Italian resort where she once dominated, Lindsey Vonn slammed the snow angrily with her right pole.

Then she got up and skied down to the finish — fortunate to have come away mostly unscathed again — and ready to assess the most difficult weekend of her comeback at age 40 with a new titanium knee following nearly six years of retirement.

“It’s just going to take a little bit more time,” Vonn said, “I need to be patient myself and I hope that everyone can be patient with me so that I can just keep my expectations in check and just keep trying to get better every weekend.”

Vonn told The Associated Press on Thursday that she plans to retire again after next year’s Olympics, when women’s skiing will be held in Cortina.

“I need more training, I need more time. And I think it’s actually kind of a good thing that I didn’t do well this weekend, because it leaves me really hungry for more and also hopefully for next year,” Vonn said Sunday.

Vonn was on pace for a top-5 finish in a World Cup super-G when she fell on her left hip coming around a gate midway down. Then she slid down the course and came to a stop far away from the safety netting.

“I got a little bit behind the course and tried to pull it off,” Vonn said. “My skis kind of clicked together and I lost my balance.”

Vonn also avoided injury during a crash in downhill training on Thursday.

“There was a section where it was a little tighter and she got pushed a little bit and then she ran out of space,” Patrick Riml, Vonn’s former coach and now advisor with Red Bull, said of her latest fall. “It’s a part of the process.”

Vonn was fourth fastest in the second sector.

“And she was not even pushing hard on top,” Riml said. “She just needs to get more miles in.”

Home skier Federica Brignone won the super-G ahead of Swiss Olympic champions Lara Gut-Behrami and Corinne Suter.

Vonn, who holds the record with 12 wins in Cortina, returned to the circuit last month then was solid last weekend in St. Anton, Austria, finishing sixth and fourth in a downhill and a super-G, respectively.

In Saturday’s downhill in Cortina, a mistake toward the end of her run resulted in a 20th-place finish.

In her latest race, Vonn was fifth fastest through the second of three checkpoints before she lost control. In all, she was one of 10 skiers who didn’t finish a race held in flat light and overcast conditions.

Vonn plans to race again in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, next weekend, and then at next month’s world championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.

JURISPRUDENCE

Former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield, whose 2020 rape conviction was vacated late last year, will remain in California state prison for now after a judge declined to make a bail ruling Friday.

Santa Clara County’s Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon said he couldn’t grant bail or release the former football star because the case remains under the jurisdiction of an appeals court, The Mercury News reported.

The Sixth District Court of Appeal vacated Stubblefield’s conviction in December 2024 and overturned his sentence of 15 years to life in prison after finding that racial bias had tainted the Black man’s trial. But the appellate court’s remittitur, a technical ruling that returns jurisdiction to the lower court, is not expected to be issued until next month, the news outlet reported.

Stubblefield’s attorneys have sought his release, asserting there are no longer grounds to keep him incarcerated.

In a motion filed to Ramon earlier this week, the attorneys said the judge had the authority to transfer the ex-NFL player from California State Prison, Corcoran — where he has served close to four years of a 15-year sentence — to county jail, and then grant his release on bail. That would effectively return Stubblefield to the same status that he had pretrial, which they argue is his current legal standing, the news outlet reported.

In court Friday, Ramon maintained jurisdiction isn’t returned to the local court until the Court of Appeal issues the remittitur. Deputy District Attorney Tim McInerney’s office has stated it supports Stubblefield remaining in custody, according to The Mercury News.

GOLF

Englishman Tyrrell Hatton held off Daniel Hillier of New Zealand to win the Dubai Desert Classic by a stroke on Sunday, equaling Jon Rahm’s record of five Rolex Series victories.

Overnight leader Hillier birdied the last to put pressure on his playing partner but Hatton held his nerve to hole his par putt from seven feet and secure the win.

“It feels amazing,” Hatton said. “I said earlier in the week, this is one of the events that you would like to have on your CV. It’s such an iconic event for the DP World Tour. To add my name to the list of the amazing champions that have been before me, and to have my name on that trophy now, it’s a dream come true.”

The Rolex Series includes a few events with elevated purses every season. Hatton hadn’t won one of these tournaments since Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Hatton shot a 3-under 69 in the final round Sunday to finish 15 under overall to edge Hillier (71) and fellow Englishman Laurie Canter (68) in third, another shot back.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous on the back nine to be honest,” Hatton said. “I guess I just maybe wanted it a bit too much. I knew the position I was in, and a little bit scruffy down the last. But yeah, to see that putt go in felt amazing. Just so happy to win.”

Rory McIlroy (66), who was seeking a third straight title at the tournament, finished joint fourth on 12 under with Niklas Norgaard (66) of Denmark.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Any adjustments to the College Football Playoff for next season, including a potential tweak in the way byes are awarded, would have to take place later this year, probably in the spring, the leaders of the playoff said Sunday.

Conference commissioners and school presidents who operate the playoff met on the eve of the Ohio State-Notre Dame title game to discuss issues related to this season’s kickoff of the 12-team playoff, and how to transition to the next TV contract, which begins in 2026. What didn’t come up was the 2025 season, where any tweaks would take unanimous approval from the commissioners.

Most likely in the “tweak” category would be changes in the way the teams are seeded. This year, the top four conference champions were guaranteed byes, which allowed Arizona State (Big 12) and Boise State (Mountain West) to leapfrog several teams ranked ahead of them.

Both lost their first games of the playoffs.

“We’re going to let the management committee and our CFP staff start these conversations,” said Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State who chairs the CFP board of managers. “But we didn’t get into any dialogue in the room about what-ifs. There was none of that discussion.”