Lindsey Vonn is ready for the Winter Olympics despite injury

Lindsey Vonn has Waited for this for a long time. After Thursday’s downhill training was canceled due to heavy snowfall and Friday’s practice was delayed by more than 90 minutes due to fog, Vonn stormed out of the start gate for the first time at this Olympics.

She is the tenth skier to quit Skied smoothly and confidently and led most of the course before making a few mistakes on the bottom rollers and finishing with the 11th best time of the day. His race was so extraordinary that it was extraordinary.

Just three days ago, Vaughan announced this She will compete in these Olympics despite having completely torn the ACL in her left knee a few days ago. Succeeding in the training race in front of the world will prove to him and everyone else that he is fit to compete on Sunday.

“It felt like race day for me,” his coach Axel Lund Svindal said Friday. “You know her history. She’s been harsh at times when people have told her maybe she shouldn’t be in the starting gate.”

Vaughan has held this post before also. The story of these Olympics is the story of their careers: long streaks of unparalleled success interrupted by injury – often just before or during the Olympics.

At the 2006 Games, she crashed in a downhill training run, was airlifted off the mountain and returned two days later to finish eighth. In 2010, he suffered a severe calf injury which he described as the most painful injury of his life. He won on the slope. In 2014, she missed the Games due to a partial ACL injury, and in 2018, she skied with a piece of cartilage in her right knee.

She wanted something to be different this time. She came into this season as strong as she had in a decade. She was pain-free. And she was winning again.

But ski racing is risky, and Vaughn skis on the edge. “Because I push the limits, I crash, and I get injured more times than I want to admit — even to myself,” she said Tuesday.

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Lindsey Vonn reflects on the physical and emotional pain that shaped her final Olympics, the soul-searching that followed retirement, and the joy and confidence of her return to ski racing.

“I’m working really hard to come into these games in a completely different position [than in years past],” Vaughn said. “I know what my chances were before the accident, and I know my chances aren’t what they are today. But I know there’s still a chance and as long as there’s a chance, I’ll try.”

Vonn will take her chance in the downhill on Sunday in her fifth Olympics. He said he was not in pain and his knee felt stable. He posted video She did squats and speed workouts in the gym this week and took a second training run on Saturday, where she was more than two seconds faster than the previous day. Swindell said he noticed symmetry in her skiing and that her left and right foot turns looked equally strong.

Although Vonn didn’t envision her final Olympic debut this way, it’s hard to think of a more fitting place for the 41-year-old to end her ski racing career. He scored his first World Cup podium in Cortina as a teenager in 2004, and his 12 World Cup wins here are more than any other skier has earned at the same venue.

“I never thought I’d be in this position,” Vaughn said in late October. She was in New York ahead of the World Cup season and had no idea how the next few months would play out – whether she would win her first downhill race of the year or whether when she reached Cortina, the world would once again be wondering if she could even race.

But if she had known what was coming next, Vonn would likely have said something similar to what she said on Tuesday: Her comeback is not about winning or losing, but about showing up and trying to get in the starting gate. She’s not letting this injury ruin her second chance to finish her career on her own terms.

“If it was anywhere else, I would probably say it’s not worth it,” Vaughn said. “But for me, there’s something special about the Cortina that always draws me back, and it’s drawn me back the last time, too.”

By any means, Even without this comeback, Vaughan has had a great career. When she retired at the age of 34, she had won 82 World Cups, the most of any woman and the second most World Cups in history behind Swedish great Ingmar Stenmark’s 86. Vonn’s American teammate, Mikaela Shiffrin, won. Since overtaken by both skiersWith 108 World Cup wins and counting, but Vonn still holds the record for most downhill wins by any skier, male or female. She is also the only American woman to win gold in downhill at the Olympics.

But she did not retire on her own terms.

Instead, Vaughn’s body made the decision for him. He suffered several devastating injuries, had to undergo multiple ACL and MCL repairs and was in constant pain. By the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, she could barely bend her right knee or straighten it completely.

A year later, she competed in her final World Championships. Before her last race, knowing how much pain she was going through, Vonn’s longtime coach, Erich Seiler, who died last August, asked her, “What’s 90 seconds in life worth?” He earned a bronze medal and retired from the sport. “When I said I retired, I retired,” Vaughn says. “I’ve really made my life outside of skiing in a meaningful way.”

In retirement, he accepted becoming a novice. He tried car racingrodeo roping and wrote a book. She shared about her adventures with her beloved rescue dogs, her mental health, and time spent with family and friends. Experiencing life beyond the isolated world of elite ski racing gave her a better perspective and increased her confidence outside of skiing.

In August 2022, Vonn lost her mother, Linda, who died after a year-long battle with ALS. Her mother’s life inspired Vaughn’s way of life. His death influenced Vaughan’s decision to return to racing.

“My mom in general, her attitude has always inspired my comeback,” Vaughn said in October. “His passing made me realize even more that life is short. I’ve been given this opportunity and I can’t take it for granted.”

“And if I fail, who cares?” He said. “I’ve already won everything. Someone asked me if not succeeding at the Olympics would spoil my legacy. No, because I tried. My legacy isn’t about winning, it’s about trying.”

Vonn had a partial knee replacement in April 2024, and within a month, she was able to fully straighten her leg and perform exercises she had not done in years. She started dreaming.

Knowing that the next Winter Games would be in Cortina, she found a goal, and returned to the sport as a better skier than when she had retired. “I’m generating speed with my right side, which I haven’t done in a very long time,” Vaughn said in October. “My right foot turn is my best turn. I don’t know the last time that happened.” This will be important in Cortina as he recovers from a new injury to his left knee.

Vonn also added 12 pounds of muscle before this season and increased her overall strength and agility, all of which – along with a knee brace – will help stabilize her injured knee. In August, she began working with Svindal, a two-time Olympic champion for Norway who retired the same month in 2019.

So far this season, Vonn has finished on the podium in five of the five World Cup downhill races and won two, in addition to earning two podiums in three super-G races.

Vonn said yes to this comeback for two simple reasons: because she can, and because she believes she can win, especially in Cortina. Despite the injury, both things still hold true. She knows this course. She knows where and how to push her limits and said Tuesday that when she’s at the starting gate, she won’t think about her knee. She might be thinking about skiing fast.

“I love everything about the Cortina track,” Vonn said last year. “I understand it very well. In downhill, it’s all about seeing the fall line and being able to maintain speed. I know the places where I can make mistakes and the places where I can’t, so I have to accelerate. Overall, I have a very good feel for what it takes to ski fast there.”

if von believes In anything, it’s a second chance.

In the summer of 2025, less than a year after announcing her withdrawal, Vonn’s sister suggested she adopt a new partner to travel the World Cup circuit with her. “She said, ‘You’re happier when you have a dog with you,'” Vaughn said.

Vonn was still mourning the loss of her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Lucy, who traveled with her everywhere, even sitting next to her at dinners and Olympic news conferences. But in August he started searching. She scrolled through the listings on an adoption website and on the last page, she saw it: a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, its cute brown face framed by white hourglass stripes. And she already had the right name: Chance.

“I was like, ‘This is poetic,'” Vaughn said. “This is my boy. This is my second chance.”

Sambhavna has been with him throughout the season.

In October, she took him on his first international trip to a training camp in Chile, and he has been traveling with her frequently since then. Vaughn also takes her mother and Lucy with her, racing in a helmet emblazoned with the initials of their names as well as the initials of seven others lost in recent years: her grandparents, Sailor and another beloved rescue dog, Bear. She calls the group her “angel army.”

After winning her first World Cup downhill race in nearly seven years in December, Vonn posted a photo of Chance on the couch next to her trophies in her hotel room in St. Moritz. “This weekend was amazing in so many ways,” he wrote. “All the work we’ve done over the past year is coming together…the best is yet to come.”

No matter what happens at the Ups and Downs on Sunday, Chance will definitely be waiting for Vonn in his hotel room with a wagging tail and unconditional support.

“This is all just icing on the cake,” Vaughn said this week. “I never expected to be here. I thought it was an amazing opportunity to end my career the way I wanted. It didn’t exactly go the way I wanted, but I don’t want to have any regrets.”

This season, Vonn allowed herself to dream of Olympic gold again. Although his injury has made winning the downhill an uphill battle, he is still confident it is possible. On Sunday, he’ll remember the advice Sellers gave him in 2019: What’s 90 seconds worth in a lifetime?