CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Perusing the start list for the women’s alpine skiing World Cup, most of the numbers look the same. The document states the competitors’ names, nationality, bib number and year of birth. Some 42 of the 54 competitors were born in the 1990s, while 11 were born in the 2000s. And then there’s one woman who doesn’t quite fit the trend, her year sticks out a mile. It’s 1984, and it’s Lindsey Vonn.
This is history in the making, the announcer boisterously proclaims as Vonn prepares to start her run down the white, gleaming slopes of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Lindsey, Lindsey! the crowd, one of the largest the event has ever hosted, chants. We may be deep in the Italian Dolomites but Vonn’s name and popularity go far across the globe. Only local favourite and Olympic gold medallist Sofia Goggia can command a rowdier din.
There is a huge ovation as Vonn crosses the line in 20th in a downhill race (she was heading for the top five before a later error curtailed her progress) here on this Saturday in mid-January. She gives a double wave to the crowd, some of whom are proudly waving U.S. flags. When she leaves the course, there is a scrum of frantic people to walk through; she stops to sign their skis and their helmets, they yell her name and try and time their selfies so that Vonn is in the picture when she walks past.
The fact that I’m back here is a miracle in itself, she says, her light, smiling, relaxed demeanor, complete with trademark fluffy double bobble hat, incessantly contradicting the unyieldingly steely determination that has characterised her career. I was on pace for a top-five result and I have to be happy with that. … It has been six years and this is the fastest course with the most terrain that I’ve skied. The difference in speed for me was a lot, so it was hard for me to adjust.
My body can sustain a lot. I’m not like I was when I retired — I can take a hit. I’ve got titanium now. How she was when she retired was, again in her own words, broken “beyond repair.” My body is screaming at me to stop and it’s time for me to listen, she said as she ended a glittering career of three Olympic medals (one gold in Vancouver in 2010), four World Cup titles and eight world championship medals.
Five years later, a knee replacement took the pain away and gave her a second chance. But what did people think when she made her shock announcement of a comeback? I thought: ‘She’s crazy’ That was the reaction of Patrick Riml, who has known and worked with Vonn for the best part of a quarter of a century, including as alpine director of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association.
You do a few laps with her here and you see that everybody is watching her. She transcends the sport, Anouk Patty, the chief of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, tells The Athletic. It was in Cortina in 2019 that Vonn knew her skiing career was about to end, when her body was in so much pain that she couldn’t finish a race. And it will be in Cortina in 2026 at the Winter Olympics, if all goes to plan, that she brings the curtain down on what is certainly one of the greatest careers in the history of skiing, but perhaps also on one of greatest comebacks modern sport has witnessed.
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