NEW YORK — When Lindsey Vonn retired from Alpine snowboarding in 2019, she walked away from the game as some of the profitable skiers in historical past. Six years later she’s coming again, together with her sights set on competing in a fifth Winter Olympics in February in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
However no matter how that comeback ends, Vonn isn’t apprehensive about it detracting from what she’s already completed.
“That is completely different as a result of I had nothing to show,” mentioned Vonn, 41, who climbed a World Cup podium for the primary time since 2019 when she completed second on the super-G season finals in Solar Valley, Idaho, final March.
“I don’t suppose anybody remembers Michael Jordan’s comeback. I don’t suppose that’s a part of his legacy in any respect,” she continued. “I’ve already succeeded. I’ve already gained. I used to be on the rostrum. I’ve the file for the oldest medalist in World Cup by seven years [she set the previous record in 2019]. I really feel like this journey has been unbelievable.”
American Lindsey Vonn poses in 2019 with medals she has gained all through her profession within the end space on the alpine ski world championships in Are, Sweden.
(Marco Trovati / Related Press)
Vonn has three Olympic medals, however she gained her solely gold 15 years in the past. She’s gained eight World Championship medals, however only one since 2017; her final gold got here in 2009. However the comeback isn’t a lot about rekindling that previous as it’s about shoring up the current.
“I closed my profession, and I positively wish to shut that chapter in possibly a greater method than I did in 2019,” mentioned Vonn, who was talking Tuesday on the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Media Summit in Manhattan. “I really feel like I’m pleased, free. I’m doing it as a result of I adore it. I’m not doing to show something to anybody.”
Vonn missed the 2014 Winter Video games with a proper knee harm, an harm that led to her retirement in 2019. However after partial knee-replacement surgical procedure final yr, she determined she wasn’t carried out with snowboarding but.
“After the alternative, I knew issues had been actually completely different,” she mentioned. “My physique felt so good, and I simply sort of saved pushing myself additional and additional to see what I used to be able to. Snowboarding and racing appeared just like the logical subsequent step.”
American Lindsey Vonn skis throughout a girls’s super-G run on the World Cup finals on March 23 in Solar Valley, Idaho.
(Robert F. Bukaty / Related Press)
She’s a special skiier than she was when first began competing internationally 20 years in the past, she mentioned.
“I’ve much more perspective now, having been away from the game for six years,” she mentioned. “That simply permits me to compete otherwise and I feel that provides me a bonus truly.
“Downhill snowboarding has so much to do with with accrued information. And I’ve clearly accrued lots of information, as a result of I’ve raced for a really very long time.”
Vonn, whose comeback landed her on the duvet of this week’s Time journal, mentioned she’s in the most effective form of her profession. However she nonetheless should earn sufficient factors on this winter’s World Cup circuit to qualify for the Olympics.
She mentioned she most likely wouldn’t have thought-about racing at a prime degree once more if subsequent February’s Video games weren’t schedule for Cortina, the place’s gained a file 12 profession World Cup races. She additionally recorded her first of 138 World Cup podiums in Cortina in 2004.
“My objective has at all times been Cortina once more. It’s such a particular place for me,” she mentioned.
American Lindsey Vonn speeds down the course throughout an alpine ski girls’s World Cup downhill race in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Feb. 28.
(Gabriele Facciotti / Related Press)
“I didn’t wish to set that as a objective, as a result of I didn’t know if I’d even be capable to compete, not to mention qualify or end the season. As soon as I skilled extra and I obtained in higher form, I mentioned to myself that that is an attainable objective. I can do that.”
And if she will’t, that gained’t detract from the truth that she tried. Or from what she’s already completed.
“I’m at peace with the place I’m in my life,” she mentioned. “I don’t have to be ski racing, however I positively like to ski race and don’t have anything to show. So I don’t really feel like I’ve lots of strain, though my dad says it’s essentially the most strain I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
