Recently, she achieved the seemingly impossible: returning to competitive skiing six years after retirement, thanks to a partial knee replacement. But Vonn’s journey to the top was never as smooth as her runs through the gates. Her relentless drive has always set her apart – as she puts it, “If I set my mind to something, I won’t stop until I achieve it.” That determination is exactly what fuelled her comeback and continues to define her career.
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Vonn hung up her skis in 2019, but is now back!
© Erich Spiess/ASP/Red Bull Content Pool
01
Early years: Minnesota roots and the making of a skiing champion
Vonn clicked into a pair of skis for the first time at just three years old. Her home mountain in Minnesota could be described as more of an urban ski hill. Despite its humble stature, Buck Hill had certain champion-building amenities that other ski areas lacked. For one, the legendary ski coach Erich Sailer was hard at work turning young skiers like Vonn into world-class athletes with the help of a rope-tow that meant a full lap took only two minutes.
Vonn has skiing in her blood; her father, Alan Kildow, was a former ski racer and three-time junior World Champion before a knee injury benched him. Recalled by her siblings for being as competitive as she was passionate for the sport, it was no surprise when a nine-year-old Vonn declared her intent to one day compete in the Olympics.
02
The highs and lows of Lindsey Vonn’s record-breaking career
Lindsey Vonn gives everything at World Champs
© Hans Bezard / Agence Zoom
The American skier’s determination and drive carried her over the next decade through the highs and lows of one of the most demanding, not to mention dangerous competitive sports.
Following her early successes, Vonn’s right knee took the first of many hits in Åre, Sweden, in 2007. After earning silver medals in downhill and super-G, Vonn crashed in practice ahead of the slalom race, spraining her right ACL and ending her season.
Injury and comeback: How Vonn redefined resilience in ski racing
Vonn rehabbed her knee diligently and went on to win the overall World Cup title in 2008 and again in 2009, breaking the records for both the number of American World Cup victories and American World Cup wins in a single season, as well as becoming the first American woman to win the world super-G title while she was at it.
Peak performance: Vonn’s 2011–2012 season of historic wins
Vonn racing at Lake Louise in 2012
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
The 2011-2012 winter season was one of the best of Vonn’s career. Throughout the season, she racked up a total of twelve World Cup wins across the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and combined disciplines. Vonn became one of the only skiers to ever stand on top of the podium in every single discipline of Alpine racing, and she earned her fourth Crystal Globe that season.
Defying age and expectations: Vonn’s 2015 comeback in Cortina
Vonn had turned 30 ahead of the 2014-15 season, a fact that was reiterated continuously by the media as though it would somehow slow down a woman proving to be one of the greatest skiers of all time. In true Vonn fashion, she didn’t let the public’s opinion of her age stop her, and won four medals in super-G and another four in downhill that season. On January 15, 2015, Vonn took her 63rd World Cup victory of her career in Cortina, Italy, surpassing Anne-Marie Moser-Pröll for most World Cup wins ever.
Crashes, recoveries and relentless drive: Vonn’s journey to 82 World Cup wins
During the 2015-16 season, Vonn saw another nine wins, her 38th victory in downhill, and her 20th Crystal Globe. It seemed that Vonn was once again unstoppable until a crash in Soldeu, Andorra, fractured her knee, ending her season early.
Lindsey Vonn knows she got the record!
© Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom
Vonn’s 2016-17 season saw a rocky beginning when she fractured her arm training in November of 2016, but she returned quickly to snow following the injury. During her second race back on the circuit in January, Vonn won the downhill event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and went on to win a seventh World Championship medal in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in February. This was the win that brought Vonn’s career World Cup win tally to a whopping 82.
From Torino to PyeongChang: Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic breakthroughs
Vonn raced once at the 2006 Winter Games. A crash in practice resulted in Vonn being evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, where she was kept overnight. Against all odds, Vonn still competed two days later and finished with top-ten rankings in downhill and slalom.
Vonn’s performance four years later in Vancouver is still considered one of the most impressive moments in her career. Following five consecutive wins in downhill and four more in super-G and combined, there was no question she’d dominate in Canada, too.
Lindsey Vonn recovers from her knee injury
© David Mavro/Red Bull Content Pool
However, a week before the start, Vonn injured her tibia in a crash. Just as it looked like she wouldn’t be able to compete, bad weather worked in her favour and postponed her races, giving her enough time to recover. Vonn went on to win a gold medal in downhill and a bronze medal in super-G.
In February of 2013, a crash in Schladming tore Vonn’s right ACL for the first time. She returned to competition just eight months later, faster than most return to skis at all after the same injury. Tragedy struck just a month later, when Vonn reinjured her knee in a ski crash, taking her out for the season and Sochi.
Vonn made up for the missed opportunity by earning a bronze medal in downhill in PyeongChang another four years later.
Final races and retirement
In 2018, Vonn was at a pivotal moment in her career. The possibility of breaking legendary ski racer Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup wins loomed, but so did the damage to her body. Vonn suffered another knee injury in November 2018. She decided to push through the season, despite having no LCL and sustaining nerve damage that caused muscles in her lower leg to shut down. Vonn decided that the 2018-19 season would be her last in competition.
Vonn retired from ski racing after the 2019 World Championships in Åre
© Erich Spiess/ASP/Red Bull Content Pool
The world watched as she competed in her final events, earning a bronze medal in downhill in Åre, Sweden, in 2019 before hanging up her skis. Despite not breaking Stenmark’s record, Vonn had cemented her own legacy as one of the most successful and impressive ski racers and athletes of all time.
03
Proving the critics wrong: Vonn’s World Cup comeback
Throughout and following Vonn’s last season, she was in constant pain, even off the ski hill. In April of 2024, Vonn paid a visit to Dr Martin Roche for a surgery that would replace the damaged parts of her knee with titanium alloy and polyethylene components in a partial-knee replacement.
Vonn turned 40 later that year – and one month later, she announced her return to competitive skiing, six years after she’d retired. After months of testing the limits of her new knee on snow, Vonn was not only pain-free in her day-to-day life, but confident her body could perform at the level she’d need to return to racing.
At 40, she’s become the oldest woman to podium in World Cup history
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
Vonn was met with criticism that didn’t just question her physical ability to race, but her sanity. A fellow ski racer suggested on Austrian TV that Vonn should see a psychologist. Another predicted she’d shred the new knee to pieces and theorised that Vonn’s return to competitive skiing meant she had no other purpose in life. Much of the coverage of Vonn’s return to sport focused on her age, her athletic ability and her judgement was constantly called into question.
04
What’s next for Lindsey Vonn?
Vonn once again entered a World Cup start gate in December of 2024 and finished 14th in the Super-G event in St. Moritz. In January of 2025, Vonn took sixth place in her first downhill race back, just 0.58s behind the winner. The next day, she landed a fourth place spot in Super-G. In March, the final World Cup races of the season overtook the slopes of Sun Valley, Idaho. Vonn came in second place in Super-G, just 1.29s behind Lara Gut-Berhami. The event marked Vonn’s 138th World Cup podium.
As Milano approaches, Vonn has set her sights on competing for Team USA. What began as a partial knee replacement to live a pain-free life has evolved into something far greater: not only has it allowed her to return to the sport she loves, but it has also inspired people everywhere to keep chasing their passions, no matter the obstacles.
Vonn’s comeback will continue to be a compelling storyline
© Johann Groder/Red Bull Content Pool
Lindsey Vonn’s skiing career – top moments
- Torino: competed despite injury; finished top 10 in downhill and slalom (no medal)
- Vancouver: Gold medal (downhill); bronze medal (super-G)
- Sochi: Missed due to injury
- PyeongChang: Bronze medal (downhill); sixth in super-G
Total Olympic medals: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze)
Part of this story
Lindsey Vonn
Alpine skiing legend Lindsey Vonn remains as determined and inspiring as ever. Now, after retiring from one of the sport’s greatest careers in 2019, she’s returned to the World Cup.
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