Lindsey Vonn expressed confidence going into the Olympic season in a TODAY interview on Monday.
“It feels like it wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about my retirement, and now we’re back,” she said.
Last year, Vonn, boosted by partial right knee replacement surgery, came out of a five-year retirement. In her last race of the season, she shattered the record of oldest women’s Alpine skiing World Cup podium finisher.
But the reason for her comeback was for this season and a chance to race at a fifth Olympics at a venue that she has called a second home: Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Vonn owns a record 12 career World Cup wins at Cortina. She also recorded her first of 138 World Cup podiums in Cortina in 2004. “That was the first time I felt like I really belonged on the World Cup,” she later said.
“I know the mountain, I know where to go, I know what to do,” she said Monday. “I feel just really calm and peaceful there.”
Vonn is expected to race for the first time this World Cup season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, from Dec. 12-14.
She’s trying to earn one of four U.S. starting spots at the Games in downhill and in super-G. Her podium at last March’s World Cup Finals put her in excellent position to become the oldest American skier in Olympic history.
“It (age) helps me a lot because I’ve raced on the Olympic track more than any other woman that’s in the starting gate,” she said. “That experience is a lot. You know, I may not physically be as spry as these youngsters, but I’m still in really good shape. I think, honestly, this is some of the best shape I’ve ever been in.”
NBC Sports, Peacock and skiandsnowboard.live combine to air the 2025-26 FIS Alpine skiing World Cup.
