Olympic skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement at age 40

Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement to rejoin the U.S. Ski Team, she announced Thursday, intending to race again at age 40 — and six years after her last Olympics.

Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist, including a downhill gold and super-G bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and a bronze in the downhill at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. She is also a four-time overall World Cup champion and owns eight world championships medals.

Her 82 World Cup race victories stood as the record for a woman until that total was eclipsed in January 2023 by American Mikaela Shiffrin, who is still active and is now up to 97 wins — more than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport.

Before eclipsing Vonn’s total, Shiffrin said: “I don’t know if I could fill Lindsey’s shoes, the way that she has worn them.”

Vonn’s last competition came in February 2019, after she dealt with a long series of injuries throughout her career, including a spectacular crash in at the Pyeongchang Games that left her with torn ligaments and a fractured tibia. In 2017, she detailed her injuries in a “60 Minutes” interview: Two ACL tears, an MCL tear, an injury to her meniscus, several broken bones, including her wrist and multiple fingers. Just this April, years after leaving the World Cup circuit, she had surgery for a partial knee replacement. 

Vonn has been training in recent months, U.S. Ski & Snowboard said Thursday.

“Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey,” Vonn said, adding that she wants to “continue to share my knowledge of the sport with these incredible women” on the American team.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt said Vonn’s “dedication and passion towards Alpine skiing is inspiring, and we’re excited to have her back on snow and see where she can go from here.”

Vonn is back with the team effective immediately, but it is not yet known which particular races she will be aiming to enter.

The next Winter Olympics are in Italy in February 2026.