Three-time Olympic medalist and four-time World Champion skier Lindsey Vonn is returning to skiing, five years after retiring following the 2018 Winter Olympics. Her decision was revealed in The New York Times on Thursday.
Vonn spent time this summer and fall training on the snow in New Zealand and Europe, and will rejoin the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team — starting this weekend for training in Colorado.
So what changed for Vonn? Why has she decided to come back? It’s all about her right knee, which had been severely damaged by accidents over years of skiing. She had multiple surgeries on it throughout her career and hadn’t been able to ski (or even walk) without pain for quite some time. That’s what led her to retire, but the pain continued.
In an effort to finally live a pain-free daily life, Vonn decided to have knee replacement surgery earlier this year. The results were staggering. One month after the surgery, Vonn told The Times she was able to straighten her right leg, which she hadn’t been able to do in a decade. Weeks later she was doing leg strengthening drills she hadn’t been able to do in eight years.
When she finally got back on her skis following surgery, her first casual runs went so well that she contacted her former coach. Just like that, they headed to New Zealand for training. Vonn began tackling the slopes like she hadn’t in years.
“I had been able to get stronger by then and could really start pushing my knee, and all that went really well,” Vonn said. “I was doing 15 runs. I haven’t done 15 runs in one day since my mid-20s.”
