When Lindsey Vonn retired in 2019, she did it as the winningest female ski racer in the world and one of the most decorated alpine skiers in U.S. history. During her career, she won four women’s World Cup overall championships, three Olympic Winter Games medals, eight World Championship medals, and 82 women’s World Cup race victories. But she is overall known for superhuman comebacks, confirming her hard work mindset, tenacity, and dedication to her sport.
Born in 1984, she started racing at a young age and set her sights on becoming a world-class skier after meeting her idol Picabo Street. She burst onto the international skiing scene at age 14 and never really stopped until retirement.
Through the years, her ferocious intention to win, even when in pain, made her a household name. She survived countless crashes that would have been game-ending for others. Her recoveries were remarkable: she came back impossibly fast and won.
“When you fall, get right back up. Just keep going, keep pushing it,” she said.
And that is exactly what she did. At the 2006 Torino Olympics, she crashed violently in training and was airlifted with fears she had broken her back. Worried that the doctors would not let her race, she tried to escape the hospital before being intercepted by nurses. She eventually received a clean bill of health and raced 48 hours later. She also once competed the day after fracturing her left knee in order to maintain her lead against another competitor.
But her worst crash came during the 2013 World Championships. She was airlifted from the super-G with severe knee injuries and dedicated the 2014 season to recovery.
Although Vonn never wanted her injuries to be the storyline of her career, she eventually accepted in 2019 that her body had limits no mental strength could overcome. The decision to step away was the hardest existential crisis of her life: “For as long as I can remember, I have never seen a future without skiing…what am I without skiing?”
However, she kept her spirits up. She hit new business goals, started her own company, worked on her memoir, served as a commentator, and launched a goggle line. Through her foundation, she has also helped empower the next generation, providing scholarships and programming.
And once again, she does not plan to stop. She said, “If there’s an opportunity that presents itself that I might enjoy, I’m going to do it. I don’t like to limit myself…Having fun and enjoying life is what drives me now.”