Lindsey Vonn stars on the mountain and in the gnarly trenches of ageing

NEW YORK – When Olympic ski racing champion Lindsey Vonn ended a five-year retirement to launch a conspicuous and successful comeback last winter at the age of 40, she noticed a major change in her interactions with the public.

In airports, hotels and restaurants, she found herself being approached by people who knew little about sports and absolutely nothing about ski racing.

What the people found irresistible was Vonn’s new folk-hero status in the modern phenomenon of the ageing professional athlete. And they felt a kinship with her ongoing quest.

“They were my age and they’d say, ‘I’m so proud you’re trying again’, or, ‘We’re with you all the way’,” Vonn said in an interview last week from Park City, Utah, where the United States ski team are based.

“That’s when I knew this comeback wasn’t about sports and it was definitely more than just about me. It’s about changing perspectives and setting a new standard for what it means to be older and an athlete. Especially if you’re a woman.”

Foremost on Vonn’s 2026 calendar will be the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, which begin on Feb 6 in Italy. If she stays healthy, Vonn is expected to compete for the American team in one or both of the most dangerous events: the downhill and super-G, where racing speeds can reach 110kmh.

That inherent peril is one reason that Vonn’s comeback last season shocked even those in the daredevil world of elite ski racing.

But Vonn, whose return was made possible by a partial knee replacement in 2024, finished in the top 10 of three World Cup races and was the runner-up in her final competition in March. Similar results this season, or even a notch or two below that level, would place Vonn high enough in a points ranking system that she would qualify for the US Olympic team.

Vonn, who turns 41 in October, will probably be the oldest athlete in the American Olympic team in 2026 in any discipline, and if she is successful, she would be the oldest ski racer, man or woman, to win a medal.

“I know how meaningful the outcome of my Olympic races could be because of my age,” Vonn said.

“It’s become kind of normal to see men as successful as athletes in their 40s... That really hasn’t happened on the women’s side. With women, I think a lot of people believe that at a certain age, we have to put our aspirations behind us and focus on something else, because society says we should. That’s not true. We’re a lot more capable than we believe.”

Vonn’s return to the top tier of ski racing is the latest chapter in her roughly 20 years as a public figure – first as one of the world’s top athletes, then as a mainstream celebrity when she began dating Tiger Woods in 2013. As other prominent relationships followed, Vonn became as familiar to the readers of People magazine as she was to Sports Illustrated subscribers.

In 2020, Vonn and her fiance at the time, P.K. Subban, a charismatic former ice hockey defenceman, split after three years together. Frequent news updates about her also included knee, ankle and arm fractures, and as Vonn said last week, “more surgeries than my two hands can count”.

“It’s been a roller coaster, for sure,” Vonn said of the past two decades.

“Some incredible highs and some really low lows. I just keep fighting – on the mountain and off the mountain. At times, public setbacks have been quite challenging in my personal life. But I lived my life; I never hid anything. That’s what we as athletes have to deal with today.”

Vonn will have a new ally when she begins pre-season training in New Zealand next week. Aksel Lund Svindal, the Norwegian two-time former Olympic and five-gold world champion, has agreed to serve as Vonn’s principal coach. Since retiring from competition in 2019, Svindal, 42, has avoided coaching on the ski racing circuit and devoted much of his time to his family and business interests.

What lured Svindal back to the exacting world of ski racing?

“When one of the greatest to ever do the sport calls you up and wants your help, you’re honoured and flattered,” he said in an interview last week.

“I was a little surprised that I said yes to her offer, but I do miss the sport and I really do think I can make a difference.”

Vonn was 25 when she won gold and bronze medals at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. A bronze at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018 made her, at 33, the oldest female Alpine medallist in Olympic history.

She is not making any predictions about her results in the Olympics in February, with women’s Alpine races to be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where Vonn has won a dozen World Cup titles.

“This entire comeback has been a great way to mentally say goodbye to the sport,” said Vonn, who plans to retire again after her final 2026 Olympic race, unless she is in contention for a season-long World Cup title.

“It’s been an exclamation point to my career, and I hope it inspires people.” NYTIMES