NEW YORK — Lindsey Vonn says it’s the location for alpine ski events at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, that motivated her to attempt a return to ski racing last season following knee replacement surgery.
“I don’t think that I would have tried to have come back if the Olympics weren’t in Cortina. If it had been anywhere else, I would probably say it’s not worth it. But for me, there’s something special about Cortina that always pulls me back. It’s pulled me back one last time,” she said.
While the U.S. ski and snowboard team for next year’s Olympics won’t be announced until mid-January, Vonn said Tuesday at the Team USA Media Summit that she’s ready to show the world what a 41-year-old woman can accomplish.
Vonn, a key member of the organizing committee for Utah’s 2034 Winter Games, retired in 2019 due to chronic pain, but realized a fifth Olympics was within reach once she was back on skis last year with her new knee.
“That’s when I announced that I was coming back. I didn’t yet say that my goal was the Olympics because I felt like I needed to compete first,” she said, adding she also knew “people would probably freak out, which they did, and say that I shouldn’t be doing that.”
Vonn proved her critics wrong last March, making a return to the podium in a second-place finish at the Sun Valley super-G finals. She became the oldest woman to medal in a skiing world cup more than two decades after her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
“I bring up age because women don’t normally compete at my age. I think that needs to change. I think the perception of women competing older needs to change,” Vonn said, citing male athletes with careers lasting into their 40s, including Tom Brady and LeBron James.
When asked if she worried about the impact on her legacy, she said she doesn’t “think anybody remembers Michael Jordan’s comeback. I don’t think that tarnished his legacy at all. ... I’ve already succeeded. I’ve already won.”
Now, Vonn said she’s “proving to the world that a woman at 41 can do anything,” even though she still has to qualify for the Olympics. “I know what I’m capable of, so I have my expectations. I’m sure the world has their own as well. But I don’t think they’re going to be higher than mine.”
She said what’s kept her moving forward is believing in herself. Vonn is planning to compete in the downhill, super-G and team combined races, declaring that she may be in the best shape of her life.
“Even though what people said about me and the comeback hurt, it didn’t stop me from believing in my ability. I knew that I could succeed,” she said. “I know it sounds corny. ... I believe that I’m meant to be in this position. I believe my hard work will pay off.”
Cortina, Vonn said, “is the perfect way to end my career.”
