Lindsey Vonn Celebrates Her Return to Competition After Coming Out of Retirement: 'I'm Officially Back!'
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12/23/2024 08:27 AM
The 40-year-old athlete announced she was returning to competitive skiing in November after initially retiring after the 2018-2019 season
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Lindsey Vonn at the 2024 Paris OlympicsLindsey Vonn is hitting the slopes once more.
The 40-year-old Olympian previously announced her decision to come out of retirement, and now she's celebrating her first competition back on the snow.
"I'm officially BACK!!" Vonn captioned a Dec. 22 Instagram post celebrating her return. "It's been 2,162 days since my last World Cup race (almost 6 years!) but yesterday I got back in the starting gate and competed once again."
Vonn took part in the Super G race in St. Moritz, Switzerland on Saturday, Dec. 21., finishing the race in 14th place. The star called her performance "a perfect place to start," noting, "This is only the beginning."
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Lindsey Vonn of the United States skis in Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Super G at Beaver Creek Resort on December 15, 2024 in Beaver CreekThe star revealed in her Instagram caption — which accompanied a series of snaps and video clips of the competition — her plans to train over the winter "and come back strong in the new year."
As for the next race on her calendar, Vonn shared that she planned to visit St. Anton am Arlberg in Austria where the Audi FIS Ski World Cup Women is being held on Jan. 11 and 12, 2025.
After initially announcing her retirement during the 2018-2019 season, the athlete revealed in November that she was returning to competitive skiing after undergoing a successful right knee replacement surgery.
Vonn will rejoin Team USA ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, but first comes the World Cup circuit this winter.
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Calling her return to the sport "amazing and definitely not planned," while speaking with The New York Times in November, Vonn shared her joy after skiing for the first time post-surgery.
"I had a smile so wide it was coming through the back of my helmet," she said. "I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through. Obviously, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't hope to be racing. I have aspirations. I love to go fast. How fast can I go? I don't know."
Throughout her decorated career, Vonn has won four World Cup overall championships, eight World Cup season titles, a gold medal and bronze medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and another bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics.
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Lindsey Vonn competes in the Women's Super-G race as part of the FIS Alpine ski World CupShe was the first American woman to win a gold medal in the downhill race at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.
"I've long surpassed the women's World Cup record and I've done things in ski racing that no one's ever done before, and I'm proud of that and what I've accomplished as a whole, she told PEOPLE upon her retirement in 2018.
