Though winter is still three months away, the skier’s mantra of “It’s always winter somewhere,” dominates the doings of the US Woman’s Speed Team, whose members just finished up a training camp in Chile this August. Among the team was 33-year-old Lindsey Vonn.
Vonn, who is sometimes called “The Speed Queen,” is currently the winningest female skier of all time. Her 18-year career has seen a total of 82 victories, including three Olympic medals and seven World Championship medals. In December of the 2014-15 season, Vonn made a stunning comeback after two knee injuries she sustained in February and November of 2013. Vonn won the Downhill at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, finally beating Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record of 62 victories. This was the first of a long list of records that would fall to Vonn’s monopoly of speed.
That same season, Vonn took the Downhill victory at La Thuile and became the first skier in history to earn 20 World Cup Crystal Globes, beating Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 19.
Vonn’s 2017-18 season got off to a comparatively slow start due to a humerus fracture in her right arm sustained while training at Copper Mountain in November.Vonn finished 24th in the Super G at St. Moritz, crossing the finish line with a look of agony. She later explained via Twitter that she was suffering from “acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction.” After another disappointing finish at Bed Kleinkirchheim in January, some voiced doubts over Vonn’s ability to perform at the Olympics. However, the athlete’s track record leading into the 2018 Winter Olympics was a vastly different story with two Downhill wins at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Later that month, Vonn won bronze in the Downhill at PyeongChang.
“I feel like I won a gold metal,” she said of her third place result. Looking to the 2018-19 season one question remains to be answered: can Vonn overtake Ingemar Stenmark’s career total of 86 wins? Over the last four seasons, Vonn has brought home a total of 22 victories, an average of five per season. The record is definitely within her striking range. According to teammate Breezy Johnson, who unfortunately sustained an ACL injury at the same camp in Chile, this could very well be Vonn’s last season. However, Vonn has expressed her dedication to breaking Stenmark’s record and says, “I hope to (break his record) before my knee gives out.”