American Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn returns five years after her last competition

American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist who retired from the sport in 2019, announced her impending return to the slopes on social media Thursday.
“Well, it’s off to Colorado … I hope the @usskiteam uniform still fits…  #onedayatatime,” Vonn wrote on X.

The 40-year-old skier retired in 2019 after a slew of injuries over the course of her career for which she is still getting treatment; she had a partial knee replacement in April.

“Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey. I am looking forward to being back with the Stifel U.S. Ski Team and to continue to share my knowledge of the sport with these incredible women,” Vonn said in a release from the team Thursday.

Vonn hopes to rejoin the team out on the slopes for the current FIS Alpine Ski World Cup tour, and perhaps the 2026 Olympics being held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

“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,” Vonn said.

“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,” she told The New York Times.

Vonn got a bronze medal in the super-G slalom at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and won a bronze in the same event plus a gold in downhill skiing at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She remains the only American woman to win gold in downhill skiing.

Vonn also has 82 World Cup victories under her belt, the second-most of any woman ever, surpassed only by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin’s 97 wins.

Vonn has won a total of 20 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup titles, eight in downhill skiing, five in the super-G and three combined titles, as well as four overall titles or “globes” given to the World Cup’s season standings leader, according to the Olympics website.