Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Caroline Vonn (née Kildow, born October 18, 1984) is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She has won three consecutive overall World Cup and downhill championships (2008, 2009, 2010),^[1][2] the first American woman and third woman ever to accomplish this. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman.^[3] Vonn also won three consecutive World Cup season titles in Super G (the first American woman to do so), and two consecutive titles in the combined.

Vonn is one of five women^[4] to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, and Super combined – and, as of December 7 2011, has won 46 World Cup races in her career. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 / 2011), and three overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in the history of alpine skiing. Only two female skiers have reached more World Cup victories in their careers: Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll 62, and Swiss Vreni Schneider 55 – both retired from active racing.

Vonn received the Laureus World Sports Awards Sportswoman of the Year for 2010.^[5] She was also honored again as the USOC's sportswoman of the year for 2010.^[6]

Personal life

Vonn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, as Lindsey Caroline Kildow and raised in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, in Burnsville. She was on skis at age two before moving into Erich Sailer's renowned development program at Buck Hill, which also produced slalom racer Kristina Koznick. Her father, Alan Kildow, who had been a national junior skiing champion before a knee injury at 18, "pushed" her very hard, according to Sailer.^[7]

When Vonn was ten years old, she met Olympic gold medalist ski racer Picabo Street, whom she considers her heroine and role model. Their meeting made such an impression on Street that she remembered the meeting and later would serve as Vonn's mentor in skiing. Vonn commuted to Colorado to train for several years before her family moved to Vail in the late 1990s.^[8][9]

Vonn attended University of Missouri High School, an online program through the university's Center for Distance and Independent Study.^[10][11]

She also frequently stays at the home of her friend and major competitor, Maria Riesch in Garmisch, Germany. Traditionally, Lindsey and Thomas Vonn had spent Christmas Eve at the Riesch family home; Lindsey is fluent in German.^[12] During the off-season, the Vonns reside in Vail, Colorado.,^[13] but also have residences in Germany and Atlanta. During the World Cup racing season in Europe, the U.S. team stayed in Kirchberg.^[14] The most unusual of Vonn's trophies also lives in Kirchberg: Olympe the cow. Vonn kept the oversized pet instead of the check for her 2005 win in Val D'Isère.^[15] Vonn's nicknames are "Kildon", "Don Don" and "The Don." Her hobbies include cycling, tennis, reading, and watching NBC's Law & Order;^[9] Vonn appeared as a guest star in the final series episode ("Rubber Room") on Law & Order on May 24, 2010.

Vonn appeared in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition that featured Winter Olympians in 2010.^[16] Vonn also made #59 on Maxim's Hot 100 list.^[17]

She married fellow 2002 Olympian and former U.S. Ski Team athlete Thomas Vonn on September 29, 2007, at the Silver Lake Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah.^[18] On November 27, 2011, it was announced that Lindsey and Thomas Vonn had begun divorce proceedings after four years of marriage. ^[19] Since Vonn and her husband filed for divorce, Vonn was rumored to be dating Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, a rumor that she denied. However, there are recent photos of Vonn "Tebowing" at a recent ski event. ^[20] She was also recently Tebow's guest at a Denver Broncos football game.

On December 7, 2011, Vonn notched her first World Cup victory on U.S. snow, at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Due to a lack of snow in France, its Super G was rescheduled in advance for a Wednesday on the Birds of Prey course. Her limited success on U.S. snow is primarily due to a lack of speed events; only three have been run in the U.S. during her career. It was the first home win by an American woman in 17 years, when Hilary Lindh of Alaska won the downhill in nearby Vail in December 1994. Vonn has had significant success in North America with eleven wins in Canada in eight consecutive seasons, all at Lake Louise, Alberta; she swept all three speed events at Lake Louise in December 2011.

Skiing career

Early years

In 1999, Vonn became the first American female to win at Italy's Trofeo Topolino (for skiers of ages 11–14) where she was victorious in slalom. After climbing through the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, she made her World Cup debut at age 16 on November 18, 2000 in Park City, Utah.

2002–2005

In her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics at age 17, Vonn raced in both slalom and combined in Salt Lake City, with her best result coming with sixth in combined. On March 4, 2003, she earned a silver medal in downhill in the Junior World Championship at Puy Saint-Vincent, France.

Vonn credits a change in her attitude towards training after a bike ride with fellow ski racer Julia Mancuso and Mancuso's father Ciro while visiting them at their Lake Tahoe home in California. With little biking experience, she quickly found herself miles behind Julia and Ciro. Alone and embarrassed, she decided she needed to drastically revise her training regimen and her attitude towards training if she was going to be successful.^[21]

On March 24, 2004, Vonn was the downhill silver medalist at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In December 2004, Vonn climbed onto the World Cup podium for the first time with a third place finish in downhill in January 2004 at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy prior her maiden victory in that specialty at Lake Louise, Alberta in December 2004. She captured five more World Cup podiums over the next two months.

In 2005, she competed in four races at her first World Championships held in Bormio, Italy, pulling in fourth place finishes in both the downhill and the combined. She was ninth in Super-G, but failed to finish the giant slalom. She cited the unexpected appearance of her father, with whom she has a strained relationship, for rattling her before the event.^[7]

2006–2007

At her second Winter Olympics in 2006, Vonn clocked the second best time in the first practise run yet crashed in the second training run for the downhill race on February 13, 2006 in San Sicario, Italy; she was evacuated by helicopter to Turin and was hospitalized overnight. Despite a bruised hip and strong pains, she returned on the slope two days later to compete and finished eighth. The gritty performance earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, as voted by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, former U.S. Olympians, and members of the media for best representing the Olympic Spirit.

Vonn earned her first "big race" medals with silver in both downhill and Super-G at the 2007 World Championships in Åre, Sweden. A training crash before the slalom caused her a low-level ACL sprain to her right knee, ending her season four weeks early. Nevertheless, she finished third for the season in the women's 2007 World Cup disciplines of downhill and Super G.

2008–2010

In 2008, Lindsey Vonn won the overall World Cup title. She became only the second American woman to do so, following Tamara McKinney in 1983. American Bode Miller won the men's title to complete the first U.S. sweep of the men's and women's overall titles in 25 years (McKinney and Phil Mahre in 1983). She also won the World Cup season title in the downhill and the U.S. Alpine Championships combined title (downhill & slalom), marking her best ski season to date. Vonn also established a new all-time record for most World Cup downhill victories by an American with ten, winning at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on March 8.

In 2009, Vonn repeated as overall World Cup champion, as well as repeating as champion in the downhill and also winning the season championship in Super-G by winning the final race of the season. During the season, she broke Tamara McKinney's American record of 18 World Cup victories when she won the Super G at Tarvisio in February. Her nine World Cup wins also set an American single-season record, surpassing Phil Mahre's total of eight in 1982. At the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère, France, Vonn won her first world championship and became the first American woman to win the world Super-G title.^[22] In the super combined event, she won the downhill portion and had appeared to have finished second in the event with a strong slalom performance, but was disqualified for splitting a gate.^[23] Three days later she won the gold in the Downhill. During early 2009, she appeared in Alka-Seltzer television commercials in the United States as support for the United States Ski Team. During the summer of 2009, Vonn switched her equipment sponsor and supplier to Head skis, after previously racing her entire career on Rossignol skis.^[24] In October 2009, Vonn was awarded the Skieur d'Or Award ^[25] by members of the International Association of Ski Journalists for her performances during the previous season.

In December 2009, Vonn sustained a bruised arm after a large crash during the opening run of the World Cup giant slalom. She continued racing as there was no fracture that would prevent her return and run at the Olympic Games in Vancouver.^[26] Despite skiing with her arm in a brace due to the injury, Vonn won three straight races (two downhills and a Super G) in Haus im Ennstal, Austria from January 8–10, 2010. The wins raised her to second among American skiers on the all-time career list for World Cup wins with 28, passing Phil Mahre and trailing only Bode Miller. On January 14, 2010, Lindsey Vonn was named Colorado Athlete of the Year for 2009.^[27] With her victory in a Super G just prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, she clinched her second straight Super G discipline title with two races still to go.^[28] Vonn ended up also winning the overall title, as well as the discipline titles in downhill, Super G and combined, and by winning the last Super G of the season, she boosted her overall World Cup victory total to 33, surpassing Bode Miller for the most World Cup victories by an American.^[29] The third consecutive overall World Cup title also equals Phil Mahre's American record and makes Vonn the third woman to achieve it, behind Petra Kronberger with 3 straight and Annemarie Moser-Pröll with 5 straight.^[29] Vonn was also named by the Associated Press as 2010 Female Athlete of the Year.^[30]

2010 Winter Olympics

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vonn planned to compete in five events.^[31] On February 10, she revealed that she had a bruised shin. Vonn said the pain from her injury was "excruciating" and she would have a difficult time competing at the Winter Olympics.^[32] Due to unseasonably warm weather and resultant poor snow conditions, many of the Alpine skiing events were moved back, giving Vonn additional time to heal.^[33] On February 17, in her first event, Vonn won the gold medal in the downhill, besting longtime U.S. rival Julia Mancuso by 0.56 seconds, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill.^[34]

In her second event, the super-combined, Vonn finished first in the downhill portion of the race. However, in the slalom portion, she crashed out because she failed to get her ski around a right-hand gate. Vonn said her shin wasn't the problem. Vonn's friend, Maria Riesch, won the gold, and teammate Julia Mancuso earned the silver medal.^[35]

In her third event, the super-G, Vonn finished third behind Andrea Fischbacher and Tina Maze. Vonn was 0.74 second back from first place.^[36] On the last part of the race, Vonn said she didn't ski as aggressively as she could have and lost the race because of it.^[37] After the race, questions were raised about the setup of the course. Vonn's husband, Thomas, said the course was deliberately set up against Vonn. Austrian coach Juergen Kriechbaum denied any wrongdoing.^[38]

In her fourth event, the giant slalom, visibility was reduced by thick, low fog. Vonn crashed in her first run, resulting in a broken fourth finger and Vonn's disqualification from the event.^[39][40] In her fifth event, the slalom, Vonn lost control and straddled a gate, disqualifying her from the event.

World Cup victories

Season titles

12 titles (3 overall, 4 downhill, 3 super G, 2 combined)

Race victories

46 race victories (23 downhill, 16 super G, 2 slalom, 1 giant slalom, 4 combined)

References

External links

• Lindsey Vonn at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-Ski.com – World Cup season standings - Lindsey Vonn
• U.S. Ski Team - biography - Lindsey Vonn
• Ski-db.com - Results - Lindsey Vonn
• 2010 Winter Olympics - profile - Lindsey Vonn
• lindseyvonn.com - official site
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010 - Lindsey Vonn
• The Ski Channel - profile
• YouTube.com – U.S. Ski Team video – mini-profile
• SkiRacingVideos.com – Video Profile
• LindseyIsEpic.com – Videos and race results/schedule
• 2010 Time Magazine - 10 Questions for Lindsey Vonn