1984-present
Lastest News: Lindsey Vonn Comes Out of Retirement
Skier Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement. At age 40, she has rejoined the U.S. Ski Team. The three-time Olympic medalist retired from competitive racing five years ago after sustaining a serious knee injury. Now that she’s had partial knee replacement surgery, however, she’s pain-free and ready to race again.
After logging 15 days of private race training, Vonn will begin training sessions with the U.S. Ski Team in Colorado on November 16 in hopes of competing in the Alpine Ski World Cup circuit this winter. Her training will focus on her signature disciplines, downhill and Super-G. “I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through,” she told The New York Times. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope to be racing.”
Who Is Lindsey Vonn?
Three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn is one of the best alpine skiers in the history of the sport. The Minnesota native began racing at a young age, showing particular skill in the downhill and Super-G events and winning Italy’s Trofeo Topolino at age 14. A decade later, she snagged the first of four World Cup overall championships on her way to collecting 82 career World Cup wins, a record among female skiers until early 2023. Vonn competed at the Olympics four times, earning gold and bronze medals at the 2010 Games and another bronze at the 2018 Games, and won eight World Championship medals before retiring in February 2019. Beyond the sport, the athlete has done some modeling work and was in a high-profile relationship with golfer Tiger Woods. In November 2024, Vonn announced she is ending her retirement and rejoined the U.S. Ski Team to compete on the World Cup circuit once more.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Lindsey Caroline Kildow-Vonn
BORN: October 18, 1984
BIRTHPLACE: St. Paul, Minnesota
SPOUSE: Thomas Vonn (2007-2011)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Early Life
Lindsey Vonn was born Lindsey Caroline Kildow on October 18, 1984, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her parents, Linda and Alan Kildow, had five children together before their divorce in 2003.
Growing up in Minnesota with her siblings—Dylan, Karin, Laura, and Reed—Lindsey began her ascent to sports stardom as a toddler, when her father, a former competitive skier, first put her on skis at the age of 2. From there, her interest in skiing only continued to grow, and she started racing at 7 years old.
Lindsey trained locally with coach Erich Sailer before moving to Vail, Colorado, in the late 1990s. In 1999, the 14-year-old made history when she won the slalom at Trofeo Topolino in Italy, becoming the first American woman to attain the honor. Lindsey excelled as a junior competitor over the next few years and was named to Team USA for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The 17-year-old didn’t place during those Winter Games, but they weren’t her last. The following year, she won a silver medal at the Junior World Championship.
Skiing Career
During her earliest years as a professional skier, Vonn was still known by her maiden name Lindsey Kildow. In 2005, she signed with Red Bull and began working with a new coaching team. Around this time, she wrote on her website: “I had a feeling this was going to be my big chance.” Indeed, her World Cup ranking at the end of the year was sixth overall, thanks in large part to her prowess in the downhill and Super-G events.
The young skier had high hopes for the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, but during a practice run, she had a terrible accident and ended up in the hospital. She still competed, however, coming in seventh in Super-G and eighth in downhill. Her impressive comeback the following year saw her win silver medals in the downhill and the Super-G at the 2007 World Championships in Sweden.
World Cup Champion and 2010 Olympic Medalist
In 2008, Vonn began her run of three consecutive World Cup overall championships followed by a fourth title in 2012. This span also saw her win three consecutive titles in the combined event, from 2010 to 2012, as well as multiple championship titles in downhill and Super-G, her signature events. Elsewhere, Vonn improved upon her World Championships performance by winning downhill and Super-G at the 2009 race in France.
The year 2010 was particularly dominant for the skier. In addition to winning the World Cup overall championship and earning titles in the downhill, Super-G, and combined events, Vonn fulfilled a lifelong dream at the 2010 Olympics. She won a gold medal in downhill and a bronze in Super-G at the Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.
Knee Injury
Having earned her fourth World Cup overall championship in 2012, Vonn was poised for even more success. But then, in early February 2013, she endured a horrific crash at the World Championships in Austria. Diagnosed with ACL and MCL tears and a fractured lateral tibial plateau, she underwent reconstructive knee surgery and embarked on a lengthy recovery.
Back on the slopes at a training camp that August, all seemed well, as Vonn said her injured right knee felt as good as her left. She aggravated some of her injuries while training in November, before returning to compete the following month at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada.
Two weeks later, Vonn removed herself from a World Cup downhill competition in Val d’lsere, France, after she sprained her MCL. The sprain, in addition to her torn ACL, forced her to announce that she wouldn’t compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Comeback and 2018 Winter Olympics
Vonn clawed her way back into elite form over the next couple of seasons, winning her seventh World Cup downhill title and her fifth Super-G in 2015. Along the way, she claimed her 63rd World Cup win to surpass Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Pröll for most by a woman, leaving only Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark in front with his 86 victories. In 2016, Vonn earned her eighth World Cup downhill title.
Heading into the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, Vonn seemed to be in fine form with three straight downhill wins. The 33-year-old delivered a solid run in her debut event, the Super-G, but made a late mistake that led to a sixth-place finish.
A few days later, Vonn outraced all but two of her younger competitors in the downhill, making her the third American alpine skier to win three Olympic medals and the oldest woman to medal in an alpine event. “I won the bronze medal, but I feel like I’ve won the gold medal,” said Vonn, reflecting on her journey and perseverance through all the injuries. “I’m so thankful to be here and to be on an Olympic podium with the next generation of my sport.”
Retirement
Vonn endured another crash in November 2018, leading to six weeks of rehabilitation. Still in pain, she attempted to compete in an event in Italy in January 2019, before announcing she would retire after the World Championships that February. Vonn went down hard once again in her first World Championship event, the Super-G, but she recovered in time to claim a bronze in the downhill, the final race of her career. The showing made her the first female skier to medal at six separate World Championships.
By the time of her retirement, Vonn had amassed an impressive 82 World Cup wins, four shy of the outright record at the time set by Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark. Her record as the winningest female skier in World Cup history stood until January 2023 when fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin passed Vonn on the way to claiming the overall record.
Return to the Sport
Several months after undergoing partial knee replacement surgery, Vonn announced in November 2024 that she is coming out of retirement to rejoin the U.S. Ski Team. She will focus her training on the Super-G and downhill disciplines in hopes of competing in the 2024-2025 Alpine Ski World Cup. “I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through,” she told The New York Times. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope to be racing.”
Relationships: Boyfriend and Ex-Husband
Lindsey Kildow married former competitive skier Thomas Vonn in September 2007, officially becoming Lindsey Vonn. Four years later, in November 2011, the couple filed for divorce, which was finalized in January 2013. She has retained her ex-husband’s last name, by which she became world-famous.
Since the end of her marriage, Vonn has had multiple high-profile relationships. In 2012, she made headlines with reports that she was dating American golf superstar Tiger Woods. The pair went public with their romance in March 2013, but they announced their breakup in May 2015 due to their busy schedules. In summer 2019, a few months after her retirement, Vonn got engaged to professional hockey player P.K. Subban. However, their union never materialized with the pair splitting in December 2020.
Vonn’s current boyfriend is tequila founder Diego Osorio. They began dating in 2021.
Net Worth
As of October 2024, Vonn has an estimated net worth of $14 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Quotes
- I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL, but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level.
- Setbacks motivate me.
- I always channeled what I felt emotionally into skiing—my insecurities, my anger, my disappointment. Skiing was always my outlet.
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