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The 40-year-old returns from a five-year hiatus and is rejoining the USA Alpine skiing team before the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Alpine skiing star Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement to rejoin the United States Ski Team, intending to race again at age 40 – and six years after her last Olympics.
Vonn is a three-time Olympic medallist with a downhill gold and super-G bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Games and a bronze in the downhill at the 2018 PyeongChang Games in South Korea. She is also a four-time overall World Cup champion and owns eight world championship medals.
“Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey,” Vonn announced on Thursday, adding that she wants to “continue to share my knowledge of the sport with these incredible women” on the American roster.
Her 82 World Cup race victories stood as the record for a woman until that total was eclipsed in January 2023 by American Mikaela Shiffrin, who is still active and is now up to 97 wins – more than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport.
Before eclipsing Vonn’s total, Shiffrin said: “I don’t know if I could fill Lindsey’s shoes, the way that she has worn them.”
Vonn’s last competition was in February 2019 after she dealt with a long series of injuries throughout her career.
She has been training in recent months, US Ski & Snowboard said on Thursday.
Vonn is back with the team effective immediately, but it is not yet known which particular races she will be aiming to enter. The first downhill, her speciality, during the current World Cup season will be held at Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December.
US Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt said Vonn’s “dedication and passion towards Alpine skiing is inspiring, and we’re excited to have her back on snow and see where she can go from here”.
The next Winter Olympics are in Italy in February 2026, and while it’s not clear whether Vonn plans to participate, the women’s Alpine skiing events will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the course where she holds the record of 12 victories.
Vonn can benefit from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s new wild-card rule, which allows former champions to get decent starting numbers for races if they come out of retirement – without having to regain ranking points in lower-level races.
USA’s Lindsey Vonn competes during the Ladies’ Alpine Combined on day thirteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Yongpyong Alpine Centre on February 22, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea [Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]
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