Back on August 27, 2022, Lindsey Vonn reached out and took the hand of her mother, Linda Krohn. It was exactly a year since the 70-year-old was diagnosed with ALS. It would be the final day they spent together.
‘She passed away peacefully,’ Vonn said at the time. ‘She was a shining light that will never fade and I will forever be inspired by her.’
Linda had been suffering from the day Lindsey was born. She had a stroke while in labor. It is deadly 75 per cent of the time and she was left with minor paralysis in her left leg.
Linda didn’t remember anything for the first seven weeks of Lindsey’s life; the stroke also prevented her from climbing the mountain to watch daughter become a skiing prodigy.
But Linda never complained. Instead, she helped where she could – driving 16 hours from their home in Minnesota to the slopes of Vail, Colorado. Lindsey would be in the back, under a sleeping back, while Linda sung along to Eric Clapton.
Her influence endures. That much was clear on Thursday, when the 40-year-old announced she was returning to the slopes – five years after hanging up her boots and 22 years since she first made the national team.
US skiing legend Lindsey Vonn is making a stunning return – five years after retiring
The Olympic champion, who previously dated Tiger Woods, is eyeing a fifth Winter Games
‘I always feel I have a responsibility to myself and to her to live every day to my maximum potential and never have any regrets,’ Vonn told the New York Times after confirming her comeback. ‘I feel now that I would regret it if I didn’t try.’
So now she is plotting a return to the World Cup circuit – as early as next month. She has one eye on the 2026 Winter Olympics, too. It would be her fifth Games. She is already one of the most decorated skiers of all time, having won three Olympic medals and captured every other major title. Among the other prizes she has collected along the way? A cow, and a goat she named Laura.
Those achievements put her alongside the greatest names in sports. Vonn grew close to Roger Federer, who retired in 2022 having – as he told her – ‘squeezed every drop out of the lemon’.
Vonn believes some ‘juice’ remains in hers and she is inspired by LeBron James, who turns 40 next months but remains a force in the NBA.
Vonn is already a legend in her own sport. She has been compared to Michael Phelps and, in truth, she has been surrounded by greatness throughout her life.
Her father, Alan, was a junior national ski champion. Her ex-husband – Thomas Vonn – is a fellow Olympian and since then Vonn has also dated NFL coach Kenan Smith, NHL defenseman PK Subban and… Tiger Woods.
They split in 2015 after nearly three years together; as DailyMail.com revealed, Woods cheated on the Olympic gold medalist. Two years later, Vonn took on Donald Trump ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Vonn was inspired to return by the memory of her mother, Linda, who tragically died in 2022
The three-time Olympic medalist is teasing a possible return to the Games in Italy in 2026
The skier said she hoped to represent the American people – rather than the president – and would not accept any invitation to the White House. She has rarely confined herself to the slopes. Vonn has posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, competed in a rap battle, and hosted dog reality TV show The Pack.
Her skiing career, meanwhile, carried Vonn to heights few have reached, but has also brought some bruising falls.
‘She would rather be dead than not succeed,’ one former coach claimed. Vonn flirted with danger every time she left the gates and that came at a price.
Seven months ago, the 40-year-old had knee replacement surgery. She had reached ‘the end of the road’ after multiple surgeries and several bruising injuries.
Vonn hadn’t been able to straighten her right leg for nearly 10 years. The problems spread to her hip, back and neck.
Vonn limped away from the sport in February 2019. She had no intention of returning. But 10 weeks after surgeons opened her up once more, Vonn was back on the slopes. The operation, it turns out, allowed her to wind back the clock. Vonn was again able to ski without pain. Now she is chasing another golden dream.
The American was just 17 when she made her Olympic bow in Salt Lake City in 2022. She went to three more Games and is not ruling out a trip to No 5 in 2026. ‘The Olympics are what I’ve wanted for myself all my life,’ Vonn said in 2010.
Minnesota is not known for its slopes but she began ‘carving the local hill aged just three’. She was racing by the age of seven. By the age of nine, Vonn was competing in international events. Before long, she had outgrown Minnesota and so the whole family located to Colorado.
The American has won three Olympic medals and captured every other major title
Among the other prizes she collected were a cow (pictured), and a goat she named Laura
Vonn continued to scale new heights and two decades ago she made her first World Cup podium – in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the site of the 2026 Olympics.
She went on to secure 82 World Cup wins – the second most of any female skier. Vonn still holds several other records, including the most victories by anyone – male or female – in a single discipline. No one has more than her 43 downhill wins and 28 super-G victories.
In 2010, in Vancouver, she became the first American woman to win Olympic downhill gold. Four years earlier, two days before her race in Turin, the American was hospitalized after a brutal 60mph crash that saw her fly 10ft into the air.
Despite initial fears that she may have broken her back and pelvis, Vonn dragged her bruised body out of the hospital and hobbled on to the start line. Remarkably, she finished eighth.
She had no such luck at the 2013 World Championships, when Vonn had be airlifted off the mountain after suffering a torn MCL and ACL. Three years later, she broke her arm.
By 2019 she could take no more. ‘My body is broken beyond repair,’ she said. ‘My body is screaming at me to stop and it’s time for me to listen.’ Vonn is now free of pain and so, at 40, she’s listening once more.
