NEW YORK — When Lindsey Vonn retired from Alpine snowboarding in 2019, she walked away from the game as one of the profitable skiers in historical past. Six years later she’s coming again, together with her sights set on competing in a fifth Winter Olympics in February in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
However no matter how that comeback ends, Vonn isn’t apprehensive about it detracting from what she’s already completed.
“This is different because I had nothing to prove,” stated Vonn, 41, who climbed a World Cup podium for the primary time since 2019 when she completed second on the super-G season finals in Solar Valley, Idaho, final March.
“I don’t think anyone remembers Michael Jordan’s comeback. I don’t think that’s part of his legacy at all,” she continued. “I’ve already succeeded. I’ve already won. I was on the podium. I have the record for the oldest medalist in World Cup by seven years [she set the previous record in 2019]. I feel like this journey has been incredible.”
American Lindsey Vonn poses in 2019 with medals she has gained all through her profession within the end space on the alpine ski world championships in Are, Sweden.
(Marco Trovati / Related Press)
Vonn has three Olympic medals, however she gained her solely gold 15 years in the past. She’s gained eight World Championship medals, however only one since 2017; her final gold got here in 2009. However the comeback isn’t a lot about rekindling that previous as it’s about shoring up the current.
“I closed my career, and I definitely would like to close that chapter in maybe a better way than I did in 2019,” stated Vonn, who was talking Tuesday on the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Media Summit in Manhattan. “I feel like I am happy, free. I’m doing it because I love it. I’m not doing to prove anything to anyone.”
Vonn missed the 2014 Winter Video games with a proper knee harm, an harm that led to her retirement in 2019. However after partial knee-replacement surgical procedure final 12 months, she determined she wasn’t finished with snowboarding but.
“After the replacement, I knew things were really different,” she stated. “My body felt so good, and I just kind of kept pushing myself further and further to see what I was capable of. Skiing and racing seemed like the logical next step.”
American Lindsey Vonn skis throughout a ladies’s super-G run on the World Cup finals on March 23 in Solar Valley, Idaho.
(Robert F. Bukaty / Related Press)
She’s a unique skiier than she was when first began competing internationally twenty years in the past, she stated.
“I have a lot more perspective now, having been away from the sport for six years,” she stated. “That just allows me to compete in a different way and I think that gives me an advantage actually.
“Downhill skiing has a lot to do with with accumulated knowledge. And I’ve obviously accumulated a lot of knowledge, because I’ve raced for a very long time.”
Vonn, whose comeback landed her on the duvet of this week’s Time journal, stated she’s in the very best form of her profession. However she nonetheless should earn sufficient factors on this winter’s World Cup circuit to qualify for the Olympics.
She stated she most likely wouldn’t have thought of racing at a prime degree once more if subsequent February’s Video games weren’t schedule for Cortina, the place’s gained a report 12 profession World Cup races. She additionally recorded her first of 138 World Cup podiums in Cortina in 2004.
“My goal has always been Cortina again. It’s such a special place for me,” she stated.
American Lindsey Vonn speeds down the course throughout an alpine ski ladies’s World Cup downhill race in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Feb. 28.
(Gabriele Facciotti / Related Press)
“I didn’t want to set that as a goal, because I didn’t know if I would even be able to compete, let alone qualify or finish the season. Once I trained more and I got in better shape, I said to myself that this is an attainable goal. I can do this.”
And if she will’t, that gained’t detract from the truth that she tried. Or from what she’s already completed.
“I’m at peace with where I am in my life,” she stated. “I don’t need to be ski racing, but I definitely love to ski race and have nothing to prove. So I don’t feel like I have a lot of pressure, even though my dad says it’s the most pressure I’ve ever had in my whole life.”
