Yes, Lindsey Vonn understands the landscape. Tom Brady. Simone Biles. Novak Djokovic. “And LeBron,” she says in early January, shortly after her unprecedented comeback at age 40, “is only a few months younger than I am, and he’s still breaking records every game he plays, pretty much, so …”
Yes, Lindsey Vonn heard from all of you. That she’s “gone completely mad,” as one retired skier so sensitively put it. That she’s craving attention. That she should have stayed retired.
Last summer Vonn went to Paris, where Biles, 27, was the oldest U.S. gymnast to compete at the Olympics since 1952. Vonn watched Biles, she says, “far exceed what everyone believed to be the limits of a gymnast’s physical ability to perform” in her third Games.
Sports Illustrated: They called Simone “grandma.”
Lindsey Vonn: Nobody’s said that to me yet. Or at least not to my face.
SI: Brady told me 10 years ago that older, elite athletes are examined with old paradigms. Do you agree?
LV: Totally. You can’t compare athletes now to even 10 years ago, because of what’s available. There’s so much more we understand and know about the body and performance.
Age is not an indication these days of whether an athlete can be successful or not. The biggest question is, do they have the skill? Do they have the knowledge? Brady was the smartest quarterback in history. That knowledge has value. And, in ski racing, it’s similar.
I have been racing for a lot longer than a lot of [my competitors] have been alive. I have a lot more knowledge. And that is meaningful. I have the ability to put those things together and do exactly what Tom did.
SI: Beautiful answer, if only because your interviewer put on Biofreeze before a Zoom call this morning.
LV: Amazing. You smell great.
Vonn never planned this comeback. It just sort of happened. The basics: Injuries accumulated until she could no longer compete; she worked on her body, stayed in shape and had access to all sorts of elite doctors. Had conversations with them. Listened to them. Then met one who was different than the others, and that changed the only opinion that mattered—hers.
SI: Patience seems critical here. Not the first
thing I’d associate with ski racing, but it’s necessary, no?
LV: We are the epitome of an outside, outdoor sport. You have to be patient with the weather, the schedule; it’s a game of hurry up and wait. You have to be patient right up until that moment, which requires aggression, balance, calmness and a strong mind.
To understand how the impossible became quite possible, allow Vonn to explain:
“I dream big. I’ve always dreamed big. I’ve been about the Olympics since I met Picabo Street when I was 9. I have lots of dreams, and I’m still dreaming pretty high. That part of me hasn’t changed, and I don’t think it ever will, so you can imagine what I’m thinking about …”
SI: You seem … free now. Fair?
LV: I mean, sometimes people’s perception of me changed. My perception of myself never has. I’m still the same little girl who wanted to be a ski racer and wanted to be an Olympian. Maybe now, I’m just a little bit more myself; I don’t have the expectations or outside pressure I might have felt more before. People see this in my face. I’m having such a great time. I’m laughing. I’m smiling. And some of that is a weight that’s been lifted off of me.
I feel like a kid, and that may sound weird coming from a 40-year-old. But, sometimes, you just never grow up. Maybe that means I’m naïve. But I still dream.
Vonn retired only when her dreams felt unreachable, her body broken, ligaments torn, in daily pain. She left competitive ski racing in 2019 after 15 seasons with 82 World Cup wins, at the time the most ever for a female competitor—a mark since broken by Mikaela Shiffrin, who has 99. And second-most ever, behind the pre-Shiffrin gold standard, 86 victories by Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn also claimed three Olympic medals, 20 World Cup titles (including four Crystal Globes for overall performance), eight world championship medals and 137 World Cup podiums. But she also tore her ACL and MCL in her right knee in a 2013 crash. And then reinjured that same ACL later that year. In ’18, she tore her LCL in her left knee and had multiple fractures in that same leg during a training crash. And that’s not counting another knee fracture, ankle fracture and severe arm fracture in between those tears.
LV: My injuries held me back.
I didn’t miss it. I was in so much pain the last few years of my career, that it was time; I was at peace with being finished. I didn’t have any regrets about it. But, of course, I missed going fast.
She dove into retirement by taking off the bubble wrap elite skiers must don to survive a dangerous sport. She windsurfed and surfed wakes. She tried polo, but that didn’t work out. She injured her back after a bad fall from one horse, got healthy and climbed right back on. She took adventures, traveled the world. And she skied recreationally, traveling to slopes she had never raced on, taking leisurely runs, not knowing what she might do on a particular afternoon. She entertained tons of business opportunities and continued her work empowering and supporting underserved young women in competitive skiing. She also helped bring the Winter Games to Salt Lake City in 2034.
LV: Just being as injured as I have been, I have had to wise up and figure out what my body can and can’t do, what my injuries mean, what it looks like, what it feels like. I have to understand my anatomy better than anyone else, and that’s been the case since my first ACL tear [in 2013] because I had problems I didn’t quite understand until later.
She leaned on specialists and other doctors they recommended. Dr. Tom Hackett, a complex knee and shoulder surgeon based in Colorado, recommended Dr. Martin Roche, perhaps the foremost international expert on robotic and sensor-assisted surgery who is based in Florida.
LV: Doctors have different opinions. It was important for me to research and take them all in. My body, technically, if you read an MRI, says I need a full knee replacement. Because it’s done.
Every doctor Vonn saw recommended a total knee replacement. Except one: Roche.
LV: He had a different perspective, and he was very smart about it. Because of him, we found I had a cyst in my bone from one of my ACL surgeries, and I couldn’t even get the replacements because I needed to clean out the cyst and refill, repack the bone.
Vonn also spoke with others who had undergone this specific surgery. Like Chris Davenport, an extreme skier who saw Roche and now skis nearly half the year. Hackett performed the cyst cleanup for Vonn in July 2023. Roche did the partial replacement—what’s known as robot-assisted replacement—by cutting off three millimeters of bone and replacing that with two titanium pieces.
LV: I had only hoped to live life pain free. [The procedure] changed my life entirely. I used to think about my knee pretty much every second of every day. Wake up sore, swollen. I would go on a hike with my friend and her 7-year-old and Aunt Lindsey would need a break after 10 minutes. It was really hard. And I thought, when I retired, giving my body a break would take away a lot of pain. And it didn’t.
One month after the second surgery, Vonn could straighten that troublesome right leg. Once back in the gym, she tried exercises she had long ago shelved—too painful—and sometimes her body felt like it was eight years younger; other times, even younger than that. Once back on the slopes, she was knocking out nine training runs at first, then 15 in a single day; she hadn’t done that since her mid-20s.
She knew she wanted to come back, regardless of history, after that very first training run.
LV: Everything felt so different. When I got the surgery, I just felt so good. No more pain. All the things that had been bothering me for so many years were suddenly gone.
Comeback became her mission. At the highest levels of her sport, too. Finally able to train without her knee swelling, she could dream again.
Vonn enrolled in the drug testing program for World Cup competitors last September, and was promptly tested the next day—and “quite frequently” since. She shifted back into her old life as quietly as possible. But not quietly enough. News spread slowly, informally at first, within the insular world she’d left behind. She was coming back—as the Bionic Woman.
LV: I do feel bionic. I was saying that even before my knee replacement, because I have a plate and 18 screws in my arm, which gives me a pretty good volleyball serve. I’ve been put together more times than I’d care to count or admit. If titanium will heal me, I’ll be the Terminator, any time.
Ahead of her 40th birthday in October, Vonn canceled a trip to a tropical destination that she had planned roughly six months earlier. Instead, she found herself training in Austria.
LV: I didn’t expect to be there. I needed to do something special for my 40th. We went to this cute hotel on Lake Como, had a nice dinner, a little cake, and that’s it.
Vonn’s thinking had changed after the partial replacement. Sure, she needed to adjust to new equipment and ramp back, slowly, toward her own standard. She completed the required doping tests. Reentered World Cup qualifying. Rejoined the U.S. team, mentoring skiers whose median age is 26. Took part in lower-level competitions at Copper Mountain in Colorado. Qualified with a wild card. Served as the forerunner—skiing ahead of the field to test the course and timing system—in nearby Beaver Creek. Earned enough points to compete on the World Cup circuit. Flew to Switzerland in December. Competed in her first World Cup race since failing to finish a Super-G race in January 2019 in Italy. Had butterflies before competing—first time, long time. Raced, first, at about 85%. Upped that to 90% for her second spin down a mountain, at full speed.
LV: I’ve trained with top-30, top-20, even top-10 [competitors] for the last few weeks. Some days, I’m winning training. Some days, I’m testing out equipment. There’s some rust to shake off. But I haven’t really lost anything. I feel like I’m right where I left off, and I’m actually healthier now than I was for the last few years.
In terms of acclimation, that famous Anchorman quote applies: “Boy, that escalated quickly!” Vonn stuck around Europe, continued training and competed again in January in St. Anton, Austria. In two more world-class competitions, without a full ramp-up, and less than a year since her last operation, she placed sixth (downhill) and fourth (Super-G), just missing the podium.
LV: I’m skiing without thinking about my knee, which I haven’t done since 2013. I’m stronger than I was. It’s better than nonexistent cartilage.
Those St. Anton races are her highest finishes so far this season, having been unable to finish in both a Super-G and downhill race in a single competition since (she most recently placed 15th at the World Championships in downhill, but DNF in Super G). Should Vonn return to even near her peak form, she would become the oldest woman to win a World Cup race (Federica Brignone of Italy placed first in October and again at St. Anton, both times at age 34). On the men’s side, Johan Clarey of France won silver in the downhill at the 2022 Beijing Olympics at age 41 and made a World Cup podium at Kitzbühel at 42. So far, no one who covers or documents the sport can find another example of a woman racing at age 40 or older. NBC Sports reported that Vonn was the first woman in her 40s to score World Cup standings points, which she did every time she finished in the top 30.
LV: I have to be patient. I know what I’m capable of. I’m really close.
The prize: compete in the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, next February. Vonn has won three Olympic medals, including downhill gold in the 2010 Vancouver Games. First, though, she wants to finish this season, finally take that tropical vacation, and then begin preparations for next season.
LV: Would I have come back if Cortina weren’t there? I don’t know. That was one thing that really bothered me when I retired. I wanted to race in Cortina. That was a big goal and dream of mine.
Competing in Cortina would mark her fifth Olympic Games. She already holds the record for most World Cup wins there, with six in downhill and six in Super-G. She recorded her first podium finish there (2004), notched her first World Cup title there (downhill, ’08) broke the all-time wins record there (’15) and broke the all-time downhill wins record there (’16).
LV: I have a different connection with every mountain, if that makes sense. I understood Cortina very well. I knew the line I needed to take. Knew where the fall line was. Knew how to ski. It was a meaningful place for me, to begin with. Would be a great place to … close the loop.
Should that happen, with Vonn officially ending her career (this time for good) at the place where she has accomplished so much, perhaps there could be a Lindsey Vonn surgery, like the Tommy John procedure in baseball.
LV: I don’t know if you’ll see that in sports. Because I feel like most people, when their knee gets that bad, they would quit anyway. It’s a good option for many, many, many athletes who are retiring or have already retired.
We all view knee replacement as a scary thing that happens when you get old and can’t walk anymore. But you’re able to bounce back faster and recover easier.
She still confronts hundreds of outdated takes. She wants her comeback to inspire paradigm change, too.
LV: As athletes, we adapt and we figure out how to manage pain. But there comes a point when you don’t have to live that way anymore. We have technology to fix things that we thought were unfixable. That perspective, of competing at older ages, needs to change.
SI: Some of the reaction to your comeback is wild.
LV: Been a little frustrating, because that’s a close-minded way to think. This is 2025—a lot of things have changed. The conversation is not in the same universe as it was 25 years ago. I don’t put any weight behind those comments [from competitors who retired a long time ago], and I actually feel sorry for them. They would have benefited from these procedures. I do hope this opens people’s eyes to what’s possible. I already have skiers calling me, asking about their knees, hips.
Vonn’s mother, Lindy Krohn Lund, died in 2022, one year after having been diagnosed with ALS. Lund suffered a stroke while giving birth to Lindsey, which partially paralyzed her left leg. Vonn watched her mother struggle and fight for the remainder of her life.
She begins to cry, softly at first, then a little louder.
LV: No, it’s a beautiful thing. I think about it every day. (Brief pause.) Some idiot online said, “I hope Lindsey has a lot of guardian angels, because what she’s doing is crazy.” And, unfortunately, I do. She’d be proud of me. I reread her journals when she passed, and every time I had a race, she was up at 3 a.m. watching, and in her journal, she would write the date, the time, the place I got.
I actually feel very protected, in a weird way, because I know she’s looking out for me, and that gives me strength.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘I’m Stronger Than I Was’: Lindsey Vonn Is Making the Most of Her Comeback.