PARK CITY, Utah — Lindsey Vonn is popping out of retirement to rejoin the U.S. Ski Crew, she introduced Thursday, desiring to race once more at age 40 — and 6 years after her final Olympics.
“Well, it’s off to Colorado…. I hope the (US) uniform still fits,” Vonn captioned an Instagram video of her at a beginning gate.
Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist, together with a downhill gold and super-G bronze on the 2010 Vancouver Video games, and a bronze within the downhill on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games.
She can be a four-time general World Cup champion and owns eight world championships medals.
Her 82 World Cup race victories stood because the file for a girl till that complete was eclipsed in January 2023 by American Mikaela Shiffrin, who remains to be energetic and is now as much as 97 wins — greater than any Alpine ski racer within the historical past of the game.
Earlier than eclipsing Vonn’s complete, Shiffrin stated: “I don’t know if I could fill Lindsey’s shoes, the way that she has worn them.”
Vonn’s final competitors got here in February 2019, after she handled a protracted collection of accidents all through her profession.
There have been damaged legs and arms, torn knee ligaments, concussions and extra.
Simply this April, years after leaving the World Cup circuit, she had surgical procedure for a partial knee substitute.
Vonn has been coaching in latest months, U.S. Ski & Snowboard stated Thursday.
“Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey,” Vonn stated, including that she desires to “continue to share my knowledge of the sport with these incredible women” on the American roster.
Vonn is again with the group efficient instantly, however it’s not but identified which explicit races she might be aiming to enter. The primary downhill — her specialty — throughout the present World Cup season might be held at Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt stated Vonn’s “dedication and passion towards Alpine skiing is inspiring, and we’re excited to have her back on snow and see where she can go from here.”
The following Winter Olympics are in Italy in February 2026, and whereas it’s not clear whether or not Vonn plans to take part, the ladies’s Alpine snowboarding occasions might be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the course the place she holds the file of 12 victories.
Vonn can profit from the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation’s new wild-card rule, which permits former champions to get respectable beginning numbers for races if they arrive out of retirement — with out having to regain rating factors in lower-level races.
Eight-time general World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher took benefit of the brand new rule and not too long ago returned after 5 years away.
