USA’s Lindsey Vonn poses together with her second-place medal on the rostrum for the ladies’s Tremendous-G occasion on the Audi FIS Ski World Cup Solar Valley Finals in Solar Valley, Idaho on March 23.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP by way of Getty Photos/AFP
disguise caption
toggle caption
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP by way of Getty Photos/AFP
It has been six years since one of the vital embellished skiers on this planet, Lindsay Vonn, stepped away from aggressive snowboarding attributable to a sequence of accidents to her left leg in 2018.
As NPR’s Bill Chappell reported, Vonn holds numerous records, together with probably the most World Cup victories by any skier — male or feminine — in each the downhill and the super-G occasions. With 82 World Cup wins, she ranks simply behind American Mikaela Shiffrin and Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn and Shiffrin are a part of an elite membership of feminine skiers who’ve received World Cup occasions in all 5 disciplines: downhill, super-G, big slalom, slalom and mixed.
And it appears she’s wasted no time getting again within the swing of issues. On Sunday, at age of 40, Vonn made headlines by turning into the oldest girl to earn a medal in a World Cup race, following her efficiency within the World Cup finals held in Solar Valley, Idaho, the place she positioned second within the Tremendous-G race.
Three issues to know:
- Whereas her 2018 accidents following a crash throughout a coaching session had been substantial, they had been simply the tip of the iceberg. Vonn had lengthy battled knee accidents and undergone at the very least nine surgeries all through her profession, which had an influence on her aggressive efficiency whilst she continued to rack up wins between setbacks.
- In November 2024, Vonn introduced her plans to return to snowboarding after present process complete knee substitute surgical procedure.
- “Getting again to snowboarding with out ache has been an unimaginable journey,” Vonn stated final 12 months in a launch from U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “I’m wanting ahead to being again with the Stifel U.S. Ski Crew and to proceed to share my information of the game with these unimaginable girls.”
Hearken to NPR’s State of the World podcast for a human perspective on world tales in just some minutes, each weekday.
A triumphant comeback
There was quite a lot of uncertainty surrounding Vonn’s return to the game Sunday.
However she shortly reclaimed her kind by ending in second place within the World Cup Tremendous-G race, simply behind Switzerland’s Lara Intestine-Behrami.
Vonn has now turn into the oldest female racer alpine ski racer to face on the rostrum at a World Cup race, beating out Austrian Alexandra Meissnitzer’s document at almost 35 years outdated in 2008.
“It was (expletive) laborious,” Vonn told the Associated Press. “This isn’t straightforward what I am doing. It simply felt actually good to say I did it. That I can nonetheless do it.”
Wanting forward, Vonn will proceed her journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics, the place she hopes to conclude her profession in a significant method. She expressed her pleasure to NBC sports stating, “That is the highway now to Cortina subsequent 12 months. And it is begun, I am optimistic, I am pleased. That is why I am right here: So I can ski in entrance of my dwelling crowd, my household, and do my nation proud.”
