The Minnesota girl’s story was already pretty amazing when she retired from the Alpine Circus in 2019. Things became even more remarkable when, at the age of 40, she decided to make a comeback after a six-year absence with a right knee replacement.
Then she silenced the doubters and became world champion again, her childhood coach and career mentor Erich Sailer died at the age of 99, and then, just when everything seemed to be on track for the Olympics, she falls and tears the cruciate ligament in her left knee.
About Lindsey Vonn If they win gold in the downhill on Sunday, the Hollywood screenwriters won’t have to work hard. The girl behind the most eye-catching start at the Winter Olympics has already done her job.
This is a story that will be hard to break.
However, not everyone was so excited when Vonn announced her comeback.
“Lindsey cannot cope with a life in which she is not the center of attention,” said her former opponent on the slopes, the Swiss Sonja Nef.
Another former participant, Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister, said Vonn should see a psychologist.
“That really hurt,” Lindsey Vonn said as she held a news conference in Cortina earlier this week, saying she had torn her ACL but still planned to run in the Olympics.
In an interview Speaking to Yahoo, Vonn says she finds it difficult to see this kind of criticism of a male skater’s comeback, comparing it to Austrian Marcel Hirscher’s return in 2024 after a five-year hiatus.
“He received a standing ovation from all over the ski world for his comeback,” says Vonn.
She received further criticism before Sunday’s Olympic steeplechase when sports medicine doctor Brian Sutterer asked whether Vonn had told her everything about her torn ACL.
“I don’t think this was a classic, fresh, clean ACL injury like everyone seems to think,” Sutterer wrote on X.
Vonn’s answer came immediately:
“My ACL was functioning perfectly until last Friday. Just because it seems impossible doesn’t mean it actually isn’t possible. And yes, my ACL is 100 percent damaged, not 80 and not 50. It’s 100 percent gone,” she wrote on X.
Lindsey was on skis already two years old, back then with the last name Kildow. She received early training from Erich Sailer on the Buck Hill slopes, and when steeper slopes and greater challenges were required, the family moved to Vail, Colorado.
When we wrote tribute articles about 21-year-old Anja Pärson at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, people in the US were talking about a 17-year-old who finished sixth in the combination.
Two years later she was on the podium for the first time after a downhill race in Cortina.
When she retired after the World Championships in Åre in 2019, she had won 82 World Cup competitions and eleven Olympic and World Cup medals.
She had that too suffered more damage than most.
“My body is so damaged that it cannot be repaired,” said Vonn as she said goodbye in Åre.
She was wrong.
Her body ached, she had difficulty walking normally, and even less able to ski. in over 100 knots. In 2024, she went to Florida and had knee surgeon Martin Roche operate on a titanium prosthesis in her right knee. She said the pain went away once the swelling subsided and the thought of a comeback soon arose.
The return The trip to the World Cup left a lot to be desired. She arranged this with the help of her Norwegian friend and fellow downhill skier Aksel Lund Svindal, who corrected some deficiencies in her technique.
On December 12th last year in St. Moritz, she achieved what few would have thought possible and was once again at the top of the podium after a World Cup downhill run – at the age of 41. A few weeks later in Zauchensee she repeated the feat and won her 84th World Cup victory.
That made her the favorite to repeat the Olympic gold in Vancouver 16 years ago.
Then came the case in Crans-Montana and the X-rays that showed that the cruciate ligament in his left knee was broken.
“I’m the kind of girl that always climbs to the top of the tree,” Vonn said this week when asked what drives her to never give up.
As Aksel Lund Svindal Trying to put Vonn’s greatness into words, the Norwegian said:
“She has courage” – which can most easily be described as determination.
Whether Lindsey Vonn’s need to be the center of attention or her love of skiing was the reason she came back doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s a combination.
The third-best time in the last training run, only 37 hundredths behind compatriot Breezy Johnson, shows that anything is possible.
If at the age of 41, with a knee replacement and a torn cruciate ligament, she manages to win Olympic gold on her favorite ski jump, where she stood on the podium for the first time in the World Cup 22 years ago, Olympic history will have experienced a new miracle.
Will she be afraid?
When asked, Vonn cited her beloved Erich Sailer, whose grave in Austria she visited on the way to the Olympics.
“It’s only 90 seconds. What’s 90 seconds of a life? It’s nothing. You’ll get there.”
The women’s Olympic steeplechase begins on Sunday, February 8th at 11:30 a.m
