ߣÏÈÉú

Five years after retiring from World Cup ski racing, Lindsey Vonn is rejoining the U.S. ߣÏÈÉú Team.

The three-time Olympic medalist, who claimed gold in downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, left the sport with 82 World Cup victories — second only to Ingemar Stenmark at the time.

In a U.S. ߣÏÈÉú Team news press release, Vonn, who grew up training in Vail after moving from Minnesota, said her decision to try and return to ski racing comes after careful consideration following successful knee surgery earlier this year. She has been able to get back to training and test her knee over the past couple of months and will be continuing her progression with the U.S. ߣÏÈÉú Team in Colorado and beyond.

In an , Vonn said: I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through. Obviously, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope to be racing. I have aspirations. I love to go fast. How fast can I go? I don’t know. But I’m not going to put myself in a position to fail. My goal is to enjoy this, and hopefully that road takes me to World Cup races. I wouldn’t be back on the U.S. ski team if I didn’t have intentions.”

Vonn claimed first World Cup victory in 2004 and went on to win four World Cup overall titles, eight world championship medals, 137 World Cup podiums and 82 World Cup victories. Forty-three of those World Cup wins came in downhill, while 28 came in super-G. However, Vonn suffered multiple injuries from a series of spectacular crashes during her career, which eventually pushed her into retirement after 18 seasons on the World Cup tour.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Following a partial knee replacement surgery in April, she said feels stronger than ever. She told The New York Times’ Bill Pennington that she completed 15 days of on-snow race training in Europe and New Zealand since August, and said she would participate in the U.S. ski team’s training sessions at Copper Mountain in Colorado that start on Saturday.

She also has her sights set on the women’s World Cup races in Beaver Creek on Dec. 14 and 15, possibly as a forerunner, and returning to her fifth Olympics in Italy in 15 months. The races for the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, a track where Vonn claimed 12 World Cup wins from 2008 to 2018.

Mikaela Shiffrin, who grew up in Eagle County and calls Edwards home, has since surpassed Vonn and Stenmark and is just three wins shy of 100.