Lindsey Vonn Announces Retirement After Are World Championships
American Lindsey Vonn, who is the winningest women’s ski racer in history, announced on Friday that the races at World Championships in Are, Sweden, next month will be her last.
The 34-year-old Vonn has 82 World Cup victories to her name and was poised to make a run at Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time World Cup wins record of 86 before a pre-season training crash in Colorado sidelined her for the beginning of the season. Vonn returned to the World Cup in mid-January in Cortina, Italy, and finished in 15th and ninth in the two downhills and did not finish the super-G. After the super-G, Vonn expressed to the media that continuing to race might be in jeopardy given the condition of her knee and the pain she was still experiencing.
“It’s been an emotional 2 weeks making the hardest decision of my life, but I have accepted that I cannot continue ski racing,” Vonn wrote in a post on social media. “I will compete at the World Championships in Downhill and SG next week in Åre, Sweden and they will be the final races of my career.”
In addition to her 82 World Cup wins, Vonn has three Olympic medals to her name – including gold in downhill from Vancouver 2010 – seven World Championship medals, four Overall World Cup titles, and 16 discipline crystal globes. Vonn has won the women’s World Cup downhill title eight times, including a string of six straight from 2008-20013.