Lindsey Vonn makes shocking comeback to rejoin US ski team aged 40

Vonn previously retired from the sport in 2019 after a series of injuries

Lindsey Vonn has announced that she will be coming out of retirement to rejoin the U.S. Ski Team intending to race again at age 40 – six years after her last Olympics.

On Thursday (November 14) the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Organization announced that Vonn would be actively competing again following many injuries. She celebrated the news in an Instagram post where she showed off a video of her skiing. “Well, it’s off to Colorado…. I hope the @usskiteam uniform still fits…” she captioned the post.

Vonn is a three-time Olympic medalist, including a downhill gold (the first for an American woman) and super-G bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

In 2011, Vonn received the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award and was the United States Olympic Committee‘s Sportswoman of the Year.

She also won a bronze medal in the downhill at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. On top of Olympic accolades, Von is a four-time overall World Cup champion and owns eight world championship 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.

‘Getting back to skiing without pain has been an incredible journey,’ Vonn said about rejoining the sport (Getty Images)

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.

There were broken arms and legs, torn knee ligaments, concussions, and more.

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.

“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.

In a new interview with The New York Times, she said: “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. I have aspirations. I love to go fast. How fast can I go? I don’t know,” she added.

In terms of the next Olympics, Vonn is currently just hoping to enjoy her time back with the team and compete in the World Cup races. The next Winter Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in 2026, which is where Vonn won 12 World Cup races from 2008 to 2018.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing in Cortina and I’ve had a lot of success in Cortina,” she said about an appearance at the Games. “I don’t know what the next few months and the next year and a half hold for me. So I can’t say right now if it’s a possibility.”

Additional reporting from The Associated Press