Lindsey Vonn is considered one of the greatest Olympic ski racers.
Throughout her career, she competed in four Olympics (2002, 2006, 2010, 2018) and collected three Olympic medals. She is the only American woman to win an Olympic downhill gold, and she is the only American woman to grab four world cup overall titles.
Vonn made her international debut at Italy’s Trofeo Topolino in 1999. She was 14, and became the first American woman to win slalom in the 11- to 14-age category.
Three years later, she competed in her first Olympic Games alongside friend, role model and hall of famer, Picabo Street.
While Vonn did not medal at her first Games, she gained a winning reputation internationally in the years that followed. She won a silver medal at the 2004 FIS Junior World Ski Championships and won silver a year later at the U.S. championships.
She did not medal at the Olympics in 2006. She endured a scary crash in training, but, within a couple days, was back racing. So, she was given the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award.
Injuries continued to arise for Vonn after the Games, but, as was always the case, she proved resilient.
She won six world cups in the 2007-08 season, collected 1,404 points, and won her first overall world cup title. Vonn won the season’s last downhill race, and broke Street and Daron Rahlves record for most world cup downhill wins.
She won more gold medals the next season and again won the overall world cup title.
At her third Olympics, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Vonn won the gold medal in the downhill and a bronze in the super-G.
Vonn followed that success up with enough world cup titles to eventually accumulate 33 titles in the circuit, breaking the record set by Bode Miller. In 2015, she won her 63rd world cup race, setting the record for most world cup wins by a female skier.
The four-time Olympian ended her career in the 2017-18 season with 82 total world cup wins. She won a bronze medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Games.
Vonn is one of six women to win world cup races in all five disciplines.
She has been featured on the covers of Glamour, Women’s Health, People, Sports Illustrated and ESPN.
