The comeback trail for Lindsey Vonn will go through the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The St. Paul, Minnesota, native and Vail resident announced on Instagram that she qualified for her fifth Winter Games on Friday. She noted that this will be her final Winter Olympics.
“I am honored to be able to represent my country one more time, in my 5th and final Olympics!,” Vonn said in her post. “When I made the decision to return to ski racing, I always had one eye on Cortina because it’s a place that is very, very special to me. Although I can’t guarantee any outcomes, I can guarantee that I will give my absolute best every time l kick out of the starting gate. No matter how these games end up, I feel like I’ve already won.”
In her previous four Winter Olympics, Vonn won three medals, including 1 gold and 2 bronze. She’s a four-time World Cup Champion and has won eight World Championship medals. She also collected 82 World Cup victories, the most of any woman at the time of her retirement in 2019. That has since been surpassed by Mikaela Shiffrin, who currently has 105 wins.
Vonn initially retired due to a series of injuries. Her last competition was in February 2019 at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championship in Sweden, where she won a bronze medal in the women’s downhill. In April 2024, she underwent total knee replacement surgery.
In November 2024, Vonn announced that she was coming out of retirement to try to qualify for the 2026 Winter Games. In her first competition back at the 2024 FIS Fall Festival at Copper Mountain, she finished 24th and 27th in her first two races.
But, earlier this month, she collected her 83rd World Cup win in the downhill at St. Moritz. At 41 years old, Vonn became the oldest skier, man or woman, to win a World Cup event.
Vonn is expected to compete in the downhill and Super-G in Milano-Cortina d’Ampezzo. She and Shiffrin are the only American Alpine skiers who have qualified. There are 11 spots for women in total to fill on the U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team. The final date to fill quotas is Jan. 18. Final rosters for the U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team will be announced on Jan. 19 and 20.
