One of the greatest skiers of all-time, Lindsey Vonn, has officially called it a career on Friday morning.
“After many sleepless nights, I have finally accepted that I cannot continue ski racing,” her tweet and Facebook post said Friday morning.
The past two weeks have been some of the most emotionally challenging days of my life. After many sleepless nights, I have finally accepted that I cannot continue ski racing.
…https://t.co/V2DTRobDLD pic.twitter.com/d91Kiu2rwN— lindsey vonn (@lindseyvonn) February 1, 2019
Vonn, who calls Vail, Colo. home, continued in the post to say she will compete one more time, at the World Championships in Are, Sweden, in both the downhill and super-g. Vonn also explains in the post that she didn’t want her career to be defined by injuries, so she hid a surgery she had last spring.
“My crash in Lake Louise last year was much more painful than I let on, but I continued to race because I wanted to win a medal in the Olympics for my late grandfather,” she said. “Again, I rehabbed my way back this summer and I felt better than I had in a long time. Then I crashed in Copper this November and injured my left knee, tearing my LCL plus sustaining 3 fractures.”
She is one of only six women to win World Cup races in all five disciplines, and she was the first-ever American woman to win gold in the Olympics in the downhill event (2010). Vonn racked up three Olympic medals, 82 World Cup races, and her super ranking is the second-highest in history including both men and women.
After being born in St. Paul, Minn. Vonn’s family moved to Vail, Colo. in the late 90s to foster her training and growth. She competed for America in four Olympic Winter Games, in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2018.
