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LAKE LOUISE, Alta. -- Lindsey Vonn was cleared to get back on a World Cup course for downhill training, the latest step as she works to return from a right knee injury and get ready for the Sochi Olympics. Now Vonn -- and the rest of the skiing world -- will wait to find out whether shell actually be racing by the end of this week. The four-time overall World Cup champion and reigning Olympic downhill gold medallist is expected to start in Wednesdays first official training session at Lake Louise, the U.S. Ski Team said Tuesday. The team added that not until Thursday would a decision be made on whether Vonn will return to competition for the first time since tearing right knee ligaments in a high-speed crash at the world championships last February. The scheduled races at Lake Louise -- a site Vonn has dominated in the past, including three-victory sweeps in 2011 and 2012 -- are downhills on Friday and Saturday, with a super-G on Sunday. Vonn will start 10th in Wednesdays training run. "Shes trying to come back as quick as possible, and it just happens to be that Lake Louise is on the (schedule) right now," U.S. womens coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. "Its a very good place for her to come back and try because shes very familiar with the course and had success here." The U.S. Ski Team said Vonn "felt strong" after doing super-G training in her hometown of Vail, Colo., last weekend, and that her surgeon, Dr. Bill Sterett, feels "her knee is stable." "I hope she is in good shape. I hope shes fit," said Atle Skaardal, the womens race director for the International Ski Federation (FIS). "Because racing downhill is not something you do if you are not in too good shape." Originally, Tuesday was supposed to be the first day of downhill training, but that was called off because of travel delays from the womens previous World Cup stop at Beaver Creek, Colo. Vonn was working toward a return to racing there last week, until wiping out during a training run on Nov. 19, and partially tearing a ligament in her surgically repaired knee. The American told The Associated Press over the weekend that she needs another operation on her knee but is trying to put it off as long as possible in order to be able to ski at the Sochi Games, which begin in a little more than two months. Vonn is three race wins from equaling the World Cup womens record of 62 held by Austrias Annemarie Moser-Proell. Of her 59 career World Cup race victories, 14 have come at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. She is so successful -- and comfortable -- on this particular slope, she petitioned FIS in October 2012 to allow her to compete in a mens World Cup race at Lake Louise. That request was turned down. "This is kind of her playground here," Skaardal said, "and she could probably not ask for a better place to do a comeback." Munir El Haddadi Jersey . 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Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night.SOCHI, Russia -- The International Olympic Committee doesnt have the authority to intervene in Russias law banning gay propaganda and is convinced there will be no discrimination against athletes or spectators at the Winter Games in Sochi, a top Olympic official said Thursday. Jean-Claude Killy, chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission, gave his stamp of approval of Russian preparations for the games during a news conference at the conclusion of the commissions 10th and final visit to Sochi before the Olympics, which begin on Feb. 7. Russia has come under scrutiny as the next host of the Olympics because of the law passed this summer outlawing "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors," which many worry may apply to gay athletes and visitors to the games. Killy said the commission considered the issue carefully and in the end was fully convinced that Russia will respect the Olympic charter, which prohibits discrimination of any kind. He said the IOC had received written assurances from Russian officials there would be no discrimination. "The Olympic Charter states that all segregation is completely prohibited, whether it be on the grounds of race, religion, colour or other, on the Olympic territory," he said in French. "That will be the case, we are convinced. Another thing I must add: the IOC doesnt really have the right to discuss the laws in the country where the Olympic Games are organized. As long as the Olympic Charter is respected, we are satisfied, and that is the case." Russian officials insist the law is designed to protect children and doesnt infringe on the rights of gays. "Regarding this law, if people of traditional sexual orientation spread propaganda of non-traditional sex to children, then they will also be held accountable," said Dmitry Kozak, a deputy prime minister in charge of overseeing preparations for the Sochi Olympics. "So there is simply no need to talk about discrimination." The Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights organization in the U.S., condemned the IOCs assessment of the Russian law. "If this law doesnt violate the IOCs charter, then the charter is completely meaningless," HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement. "The safety of millions of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Russians and international travellers is at risk, and by all accounts the IOC has completed neglected its responsibility to Olympic athletes, sponsors and fans from around the world." He noted that Killy spoke a day after gay rights activists were arrested outside the Moscow headquarters of the Sochi Olympics organizing committee for protesting the law. In Strasbourg, France, a leading Europeean human rights watchdog that counts Russia among its 47 member states said the law "raises serious issues" under its 60-year-old human rights convention.dddddddddddd. The Council of Europes committee of ministers released a statement Thursday that "invited" Russian authorities to take measures to raise awareness about the fundamental rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Russia was urged to submit a plan toward that end as soon as possible. President Vladimir Putin signed the ban on propaganda into law in late June. In August, he signed an additional decree banning all demonstrations and rallies in Sochi for two and a half months around the time of the games, a measure seen as intended to thwart protests by gay rights activists. Killy said the IOC commission was pleased with the ongoing construction ahead of the games, which with a total cost of US$51 billion will be the most expensive Olympics in history. Much of the city still looks like an enormous building site, with unfinished hotels and debris from construction scattered across the Black Sea coast, but the Olympic venues are impressive. The coastal venues, where the skating events will take place, are sprawled like beached metallic whales across what used to be a residential coastline. The structures themselves are both sleekly elegant and intimate, providing for a close proximity between athletes and spectators. The mountain venues, about an hour by car or train from the coast, are similarly spectacular. A network of gondolas, like pulsing veins up the mountainside, whisk visitors up to 2,320 metres (7,650 feet), while the smooth wood of the bobsleigh track zigzags across the lush forest. A blizzard on Wednesday coated the mountain peaks in snow, helping to ease worries of a repeat of last years warm winter. The IOC visit coincided with major storms, unusual for Sochi in September. Down the mountain, heavy rain caused flooding and mudslides, leading authorities to introduce a state of emergency. Killy said that despite the rainfall there had been "no damage anywhere whatsoever" and he was confident that any weather problems "would not stop the games." He recalled the IOC commissions first visit in September 2011 and the "unprecedented challenge" Russia faced to put in the necessary infrastructure and build most of the venues from scratch. "In Europe you would probably spend 15 years on that, and here they did it in seven," Killy said. Russia was awarded the 2014 Olympics in 2007. Kozak asserted that only $7 billion had been spent on the venues themselves, whereas the remaining sum went toward "developing the city and the region" along the Black Sea. 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