SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Lindsey Vonn never doubted herself. Now no one else can, either.
Four months after coming out of retirement, Vonn is back on the podium. Her silver in the super-G at the World Cup finals was her first time on the World Cup podium since March 2018, and puts an emphatic exclamation mark on what was already an unprecedented season.
When Vonn crossed the finish line, the crowd at the Sun Valley Resort erupted in cheers. Vonn grinned and shook her fists, then dropped her head and began crying.
‘High,’ she said when asked where this medal ranks among her many, many accomplishments.
‘When I started this, no one thought that I would even get into the top 30. I haven’t been racing World Cups for six years. I have a partial knee replacement. I’m 40 years old,’ Vonn said, emotion thick in her voice.
‘Again, I always knew what was possible. But as much as I love skiing, it’s been a hard road,’ she said. ‘I’ve been knocked down so many times in my life — personally, physically, mentally — and I always pick myself back up. It’s not always easy. It is actually really (expletive deleted) hard. But that’s what it takes. Putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the hard days. And when you keep putting one foot in front of the other, it leads you to a place like today.’
This was the 138th time in her career that Vonn has made the podium. It also makes her the oldest woman to win a World Cup medal, by six years.
‘I mean, she’s Lindsey Vonn,’ Italy’s Federica Brignone, the overall champion, said.
Vonn is one of the best ski racers in history. Her 82 World Cup wins are behind only Mikaela Shiffrin (100) and Ingemar Stenmark (86), and her three Olympic medals include a gold in the downhill at the Vancouver Games in 2010.
Numerous crashes over the years took their toll, however, and Vonn announced her retirement midway through the 2019 season, the pain simply too much to bear any longer. When she had a partial knee replacement last April, it was to improve her quality of life, not make a comeback.
But she was pain-free for the first time in years following the surgery, able to play tennis, ski and do anything else she wanted. Maybe she could return, she thought, and end her career on her terms.
Vonn announced her return in November and was back on the World Cup circuit the following month. She showed glimpses of her old self, finishing fourth and barely missing the podium in a super-G in St. Anton, Austria, and qualified for the World Cup finals in both downhill and super-G.
‘I couldn’t put all the pieces together in one run. Sometimes the equipment wasn’t working. Sometimes I just made big mistakes,’ Vonn said.
Vonn was thrilled to have the chance to race in the United States one more time — she’s said she’ll retire again after the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics — and was disappointed when Saturday’s downhill had to be canceled because of high winds. She more than made up for it Sunday.
The course tripped up several skiers — Laura Macuga had the first DNF of her career after losing her balance — before Lara Gut-Behrami laid down a blistering, aggressive run. Seven skiers later, it was Vonn’s turn.
She struck the right balance of aggression and control, not backing off on even the trickiest of the curves. It helped that the snow is similar to Colorado’s, her home base, and Vonn knew midway through the run that she was in good position.
‘I just tried to really stay focused all the way to the finish. There were turns all the way down that could catch you, and I tried to be smart,’ she said.
The crowd cheered enthusiastically throughout her run, but the roars grew as she came down the final stretch. By the time she came to a stop in the finish area, the sound was deafening. Vonn looked around, soaking in the scene before the emotions overcame her.
Her time of 1:13.64 was 1.29 seconds behind Gut-Behrami and 0.04 seconds ahead of Brignone.
‘I love skiing, that’s why I’m here. And when you love something and you work hard at something, it feels really good when you’re finally rewarded,’ Vonn said. ‘So it was joy, it was relief. It was satisfaction in the fact that this adventure that I set myself on is worth something and it’s not for nothing.’
One skier after another sought Vonn out to congratulate her. So did John Kerry, the former U.S. Secretary of State. At one point, someone cracked open a bottle of champagne and poured glasses for Vonn and other members of the U.S. team.
‘We knew she could do it. She had to get her equipment dialed in,’ said Macuga, who didn’t even have her driver’s license the last time Vonn was on a World Cup podium. ‘It’s cool to see her figure that out and do it at home.’
And the timing couldn’t be better.
This will be the memory that carries Vonn this summer as she trains and fine-tunes her equipment. This will be the memory that drives her next season. She always knew she could do it, but it’s nice to have the evidence.
‘I never doubted myself,’ Vonn said. ‘That’s the only reason why I’m on the podium today, because I always believe in myself.’
Now everyone else has to, too.
