It's been six years since one of the most decorated skiers in the world, Lindsey Vonn, stepped away from competitive skiing due to a series of injuries to her left leg in 2018.
As NPR's Bill Chappell reported, Vonn holds numerous records, including the most World Cup victories by any skier — male or female — in both the downhill and the super-G events. With 82 World Cup wins, she ranks just behind American Mikaela Shiffrin and Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn and Shiffrin are part of an elite club of female skiers who have won World Cup events in all five disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined.
And it seems she's wasted no time getting back in the swing of things. On Sunday, at age of 40, Vonn made headlines by becoming the oldest woman to earn a medal in a World Cup race, following her performance in the World Cup finals held in Sun Valley, Idaho, where she placed second in the Super-G race.
Three things to know:
- While her 2018 injuries following a crash during a training session were substantial, they were just the tip of the iceberg. Vonn had long battled knee injuries and undergone at least nine surgeries throughout her career, which had an impact on her competitive performance even as she continued to rack up wins between setbacks.
- In November 2024, Vonn announced her plans to return to skiing after undergoing total knee replacement surgery.
- "Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey," Vonn said last year in a release from U.S. Ski & Snowboard. "I am looking forward to being back with the Stifel U.S. Ski Team and to continue to share my knowledge of the sport with these incredible women."
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A triumphant comeback
There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding Vonn's return to the sport Sunday.
But she quickly reclaimed her form by finishing in second place in the World Cup Super-G race, just behind Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami.
Vonn has now become the oldest female racer alpine ski racer to stand on the podium at a World Cup race, beating out Austrian Alexandra Meissnitzer's record at nearly 35 years old in 2008.
"It was (expletive) hard," Vonn told the Associated Press. "This is not easy what I'm doing. It just felt really good to say I did it. That I can still do it."
Looking ahead, Vonn will continue her journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics, where she hopes to conclude her career in a meaningful manner. She expressed her excitement to NBC sports stating, "This is the road now to Cortina next year. And it's begun, I'm positive, I'm happy. This is why I'm here: So I can ski in front of my home crowd, my family, and do my country proud."
Learn more:
- Read the full story on Vonn's comeback here.
- For expert advice on health, money, relationships and other lifestyle topics, subscribe to the Life Kit podcast.
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