Down but never out: Lindsey Vonn's storied resilience

Lindsey Vonn, one of the most renowned alpine ski racers in history, has captivated the world with her incredible talent, determination, and perhaps above all else, her resilience. Throughout her career, Vonn has faced numerous challenges, including devastating injuries that would have ended the aspirations of any other athlete. But Vonn is clearly not just any other athlete. 

Not only has she been able to return from and perform through debilitating long-term injuries, but she’s also been able to do so and come out on top! Let’s take a look back at some of Lindsey Vonn's biggest triumphs over adversity. 

Born on October 18, 1984, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Lindsey Vonn (born Lindsey Kildow) displayed exceptional athletic prowess from an early age. She began skiing at the tender age of two, and her natural talent quickly became apparent. Realizing their daughter’s immense potential, her parents Alan Kildow and Linda Lund made the decision to move the entire family to Colorado when Lindsey was 12 so she could hone her skills in the challenging Rocky Mountain terrain.

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Vonn burst onto the international ski racing scene in 2002 when she participated in her first Winter Olympics at the age of 17. Although she did not win a medal, her performance demonstrated her potential as a force to be reckoned with. Over the next decade, Vonn would go on to achieve unprecedented success, dominating the world of alpine skiing

And while she racked up the titles, it was never without battling some serious setbacks. The first major one came in 2006 at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Despite recording the second-best run in the first practice run for the downhill race, she crashed horribly in the second and had to be airlifted to hospital. Despite suffering bruised bones, including her hip, she returned to the slopes just two days later to compete.

Unfortunately, the injuries hindered her performance and she finished eighth but impressed pundits with her determined, competitive efforts. In fact, the performance earned her a US Olympic Spirit Award, as voted by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, former US Olympians, and members of the media for best representing the ‘Olympic Spirit.’

Between 2008 and 2010, Vonn was in remarkable form and won the World Cup overall title three years in a row. In that time she racked up 33 title wins, breaking the American World Cup title record. It’s made even more remarkable as she had to participate in the 2009 World Cup in an arm brace after a serious crash at the start of the year left her with numerous micro-fractures on her left arm. Not to mention she spent much of 2007 recovering from an ACL sprain!

In 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, things again got off to a rocky start as Vonn injured her shin during training, and she said that the pain was so bad that she would not be able to compete, The Bangkok Post reported. Fortunately, the alpine skiing events had to be delayed due to unseasonably warm conditions, which gave her time to heal. Vonn would go on to win a gold medal in the downhill event.

But it was in 2013 that Vonn faced her most challenging hurdle. In February, During a super-G race in Austria, she suffered a catastrophic crash and needed to be airlifted off the mountain to a nearby hospital. It was there doctors told her she had torn her ACL and MCL, fractured her tibia, and had extensive ligament damage. Despite this Vonn promised she would make it to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Despite her determination, putting endless hours into her rehabilitation and physical therapy Vonn missed out on the 2014 Winter Olympics after re-injuring her knee during her preparations in 2013. 

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“I am devastated to announce that I will not be able to compete in Sochi,” She posted on social media at the time. “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. I'm having surgery soon so that I can be ready for the World Championships at home in Vail next February.

Vonn made her return a little sooner and picked up a gold medal in just her second race back in the Women’s World Cup downhill event in December 2014. She would go on to win a bronze medal in Vail and the downhill and super-G titles at the World Cup in France in early 2015 as well.

During preseason training in New Zealand in August 2015, Vonn crashed and fractured her ankle, causing her to miss the World Cup opener on October 24th. However, she made a resilient comeback for the giant slalom race on November 27th.

In February 2016, Vonn experienced another crash, this time during a super-G race in Andorra. She was taken off the course on a sled and later discovered that she had suffered a hairline fracture in her left knee. Despite the injury, she remarkably raced the next day, finishing 13th in a super combined event.

However, further scans conducted just two days later revealed that Vonn had actually sustained three larger fractures in her knee, rather than the initial diagnosis of one hairline fracture. Consequently, she had to make the difficult decision to end her season, despite leading the World Cup overall standings at the time. This decision came just eight races shy of potentially securing her fifth World Cup overall title.

On November 10, 2016 Vonn was in yet another training crash, this time at Copper Mountain, Colorado. Vonn suffered a severe fracture in her right arm's humerus bone, which required immediate surgery. She returned to the World Cup on January 15, 2017, and finished 13th in the downhill at Altenmarkt. On January 20 – in her second race back from injury – she won the downhill event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, taking out her 77th World Cup win.

One of the clear motivating factors for Vonn to keep pushing through her injuries was breaking Ingemar Stenmark’s World Cup title record, which was 86 titles. Vonn was acutely aware of this 2016, which is why she made the decision to come back three weeks ahead of schedule.

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In October 2018, just before the commencement of the 2018-19 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, Lindsay Vonn made a significant announcement regarding her future in competition. Vonn revealed her decision to retire at the conclusion of the season, marking the end of her illustrious career.

Previously, there had been speculation that she would continue competing until she surpassed Stenmark's record for World Cup race victories. However, Vonn clarified that regardless of whether she achieved that milestone, she would retire in 2019.

She explained that her decision was primarily driven by physical considerations, stating that she had reached a point where it no longer made sense to push her body further. Vonn told the BBC "physically, I've gotten to the point where it doesn't make sense... I really would like to be active when I'm older, so I have to look to the future and not just be so focused on what's in front of me."

On February 1, 2019, Vonn announced that her retirement would follow the 2019 World Championships in Sweden. After securing a bronze medal in the women's downhill event on February 10, 2019, she officially called time on her racing career. 

This victory also saw her become the oldest woman, at the age of 34, to win a medal at a world championship, as well as the first female racer to earn medals in six distinct world championships.

Though she didn’t break his record, Ingemar Stenmark was on hand to deliver flowers as a farewell gesture, a moment Vonn cherished.

And while she didn’t top Stenmark’s record, she was the all-time women’s title record holder with her 82 title wins, until January 2023 when Mikaela Shiffrin surpassed it with her 83rd title. 

Though Vonn’s skiing career is over her legacy, however, extends far beyond her accomplishments on the slopes. Vonn's journey has been an inspiration to countless athletes and individuals worldwide, reminding us all of the power of resilience, determination, and the willingness to get back up after every fall.

Beyond her athletic achievements, Vonn has also become a passionate advocate for gender equality in sports. She has been a vocal supporter of equal prize money and opportunities for women in skiing, using her platform to effect meaningful change and empower future generations of female athletes.

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As Ski Mag's website pointed out, Vonn put out a social media post in October 2024 perhaps hinting that she would return to World Cup racing. She wrote, "It's been an incredible past few weeks. Being back in the mountains is where I find so much joy. It's my natural habitat, even if I hate being cold." She then added, "Excited to share more."