Lindsey Vonn has made history since coming out of retirement in January. The 40-year-old became the oldest female Alpine skier to make a podium finish at a World Cup on Sunday. She achieved the incredible feat by securing second place in the Super-G race at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup finals in Idaho.
Lindsey Vonn makes history since coming out of retirement, becomes oldest female Alpine skier to podium at World Cup
Following her historic win, Vonn took to her Instagram Stories to share a photo of herself kissing her medal as tears flowed down her cheeks. “This means so much to me,” she wrote over the photo. The Minnesota-born athlete is one of the most decorated Alpine skiers with 82 World Cup wins. Sunday's competition marked the 138th time she made the podium.
“I usually do better when the pressure’s higher,” Vonn said on NBC Sports. “It’s the last race of the season. I just put it all on the line. This is the level that I know I can ski. I know I can even do better than that. It’s been a rough season of people saying that I can’t, that I’m too old, that I’m not good enough anymore. I think I proved everyone wrong.”
The three-time Olympic champ admitted that “this year has just been really up and down, and it’s been hard to stay positive sometimes, especially because people are telling me that I should just quit — again.” “So it wasn’t about how I was physically this year,” she said. “It was just I couldn’t put all the pieces together in one run,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}The three-time Olympic champ admitted that “this year has just been really up and down, and it’s been hard to stay positive sometimes, especially because people are telling me that I should just quit — again.” “So it wasn’t about how I was physically this year,” she said. “It was just I couldn’t put all the pieces together in one run,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}In her career comeback, Vonn's goal is to make her fifth Olympic team in 2026. She won the Olympic downhill gold at the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010, the same year she also bagged a bronze medal in the Super-G.
“I’m passionate about what I do; I love skiing. That’s why I’m here,” Vonn further told the network. “When you love something, and you work hard at something, it feels really good when you’re finally rewarded. It was joy. It was relief. It was satisfaction in the fact that this adventure that I set myself on is worth something.”