Chilliwack alpine ski racer Kelly VanderBeek moved one step closer to an international comeback this week.

More than two years after demolishing her left knee in a trainingrun crash less than two months before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 29-year-old former Olympian and World Cup medallist finished a World Cup training run in St. Moritz, Switzerland Wednesday.

With a time of 1: 53.35, VanderBeek came in 60th place and is scheduled to hit the course for a second training run early Thursday morning (no time was available by press time).

The time is a far cry from runs in the past that have earned the Canadian speed queen three World Cup podiums and got her within a hair's breadth (0.03 seconds) of the super-G podium at the 2006 Turin Olympics, but it's all part VanderBeek's painstaking recovery, which has now taken 26 months.

"The last three or four months is where I've found that patience is the hardest thing to have," she said. "I've been patient for so long but I'm over it. Let's get on with it. But this is one of the most critical times for me to be patient and that's the hardest thing at the moment."

If the second training run goes well, VanderBeek has said she will consider racing in the World Cup downhill Saturday.

Since the new year her knee, which sustained tears to the anterior and posterior cruciate, and medial collateral ligaments as well as micro-fractures through the knee cap and patella groove in the 2009 crash, has taken a turn for the better, and she feels there's no better place to test it under race conditions than St. Moritz, a hill she's raced nearly 60 times in her career.

"I always love it here-there is a part of me that feels like I'm coming home when I arrive in this valley," she posted on Twitter after arriving in St. Moritz Tuesday.

While pushing her knee on a World Cup course presents risks, VanderBeek said she's ready, and her husband, Olympic slalom kayaker David Ford (who is currently training in Australia in advance of Olympic qualifying in Brazil in March) agrees.

"I am extremely excited for Kelly," said Ford in an email to the Times. "She is a racer at heart and being on the sidelines the last two years has been extremely difficult for her. Obviously the return to competition will be done slowly and with great care for her knee, but to be back on the circuit and preparing to race is where she belongs right now."

cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com