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Lindsey Vonn

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Not to be confused with Lindsey Van.
Lindsey Vonn
File:Vonn-lindsey 12-03-08 - 014.jpg
Personal information
OccupationAlpine skier
Sport
CountryUnited States
Skiing career
DisciplinesSlalom, Giant slalom, Super-G, Downhill, Combined
World Cup debutNovember 18, 2000
Olympics
Teams3
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams3
Medals4 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons10
Wins31
Podiums60
Overall titles2
Discipline titles4

Lindsey Vonn (née Kildow, born October 18, 1984) is an American alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She won the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in downhill, the first American woman to do so.[1]

She is also the first American woman to win back-to-back overall World Cup championships, in 2008 and 2009, and won World Cup discipline championships in downhill (also back-to-back) and Super G (the first American woman to do so).

With her Olympic gold medal, 31 World Cup wins in four disciplines (downhill, Super G, slalom and super combined) and two World Championship gold medals (plus two World Championship silver medals), she has become the most successful American woman skier in history.

Personal life

Vonn was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was raised in the Twin Cities metro area, in Burnsville. She was on skis at age 2 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.[2]

When she was 10 years old she met Olympic gold medal skier Picabo Street, whom she considers her hero 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 a couple of years before her family moved to Vail in the late 1990s. [3][4]

Vonn has attended the University of Missouri. Vonn's nicknames are "Kildon," "Don Don" and "The Don." Her hobbies include cycling, tennis, reading and watching NBC-TV's Law and Order. [5]

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. [6]

During the European racing season, the U.S. team stayed in Kirchberg.[7] 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 [8].

She also frequently stays at the home of her friend and major competitor, alpine skier Maria Riesch in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Traditionally, Lindsey and Thomas Vonn spend Christmas Eve at the Riesch family home. The long stays in Austria, the (mainly Austrian) trainers sponsored by Red Bull, and the friendship with Maria and Maria's younger sister Susanne Riesch, another rising competitor in the sport, may explain her proficiency in the German language.

Skiing career

Lindsey Vonn
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver Downhill
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2009 Val d'Isère Downhill
Gold medal – first place 2009 Val d'Isère Super-G
Silver medal – second place 2007 Åre Downhill
Silver medal – second place 2007 Åre Super-G

Early years

In 1999, Vonn became the first American to win at Italy's Trofeo Topolino (for skiers of 11-14 age) 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.

2002–2005

In her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics, 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.

On March 24, 2004, Vonn was the downhill silver medalist at the U.S. Alpine Championships held in Jackson, Wyoming. In December of the same year Vonn climbed onto the World Cup podium for the first time in her career after claiming the downhill victory in Lake Louise, Alberta. She would go on to capture five more World Cup podiums over the next two months. For her December 17, 2005 downhill victory in Val d'Isere she chose to accept a cow from French cheese farmers[9] as a prize.

Lindsey Vonn during a slalom race in Aspen in November 2006.

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 also ninth in Super-G, but failed to finish the giant slalom. She blamed the unexpected appearance of her father, with whom she has a strained relationship, for rattling her before the event.[2]

Vonn credits a change in her attitude towards training after she went on a bike ride with fellow skier Julia Mancuso and Mancuso's father Ciro while visit them at their Lake Tahoe home. With little biking experience, she quickly found herself long behind Julia and Ciro. Alone and embarassed, she decided she needed to drastically revise her training regiment and her attitude towards training if she was going to be successful. [10]

2006–2007

In her second Winter Olympics in 2006, while training for the downhill race on February 13, 2006 in San Sicario, Italy, Vonn crashed and was evacuated by helicopter to Torino, where she was hospitalized overnight. Despite a bruised hip, she returned the following day 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

Lindsey Vonn in 2008.

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 (downhill & slalom) title, marking her best ski season to date. Vonn also established a new all-time record for most 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'Isere, France, Vonn won her first world championship and became the first American woman to win the world Super-G title.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

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. [14] 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 (27 wins) and trailing only Bode Miller (31 wins). On January 14, 2010, Lindsey Vonn was named Colorado Athlete of the Year for 2009.[15] 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.[16]

2010 Winter Olympics

See also: Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympics

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vonn will be competing in five events.[17] On February 10, Vonn revealed that she had a bruised shin. Vonn said the pain from her injury was "excruciating" and will have a difficult time competing at the Winter Olympics.[18] However, Vonn's husband said he expects Vonn to race,[19] and Vonn is scheduled to compete in all of her planned events.

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.[20] On February 17, in her first event, Vonn won the gold medal in the downhill, besting longtime US rival Julia Mancuso by 0.56 seconds, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill.[21]

World Cup victories

Season titles

Season Discipline
2008 Overall
2008 Downhill
2009 Overall
2009 Downhill
2009 Super G
2010 Super G

Race victories

31 race victories (17 downhill, 9 super G, 2 slalom, 3 combined)

Season Date Location Race
2004-2005 December 3, 2004 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
2005-2006
3 victories
(2 DH, 1 SG)		 December 3, 2005 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
December 17, 2005 France Val d'Isere Downhill
March 3, 2006 Norway Hafjell Super G
2006-2007
3 victories
(2 DH, 1 SG)		 December 2, 2006 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
December 20, 2006 France Val d'Isere Downhill
January 28, 2007 Italy San Sicario Super G
2007-2008
6 victories
(5 DH, 1 SC)		 December 1, 2007 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
December 21, 2007 Austria St. Anton Downhill
December 22, 2007 Austria St. Anton Super Combined
January 19, 2008 Italy Cortina Downhill
February 9, 2008 Italy Sestriere Downhill
March 8, 2008 Switzerland Crans-Montana Downhill
2008-2009
9 victories
(2 DH, 4 SG,
2 SL, 1 SC)		 November 15, 2008 Finland Levi Slalom
December 5, 2008 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
January 17, 2009 Austria Altenmarkt Super Combined
January 30, 2009 Germany Garmisch Slalom
February 1, 2009 Germany Garmisch Super G
February 22, 2009 Italy Tarvisio Super G
March 1, 2009 Bulgaria Bansko Super G
March 11, 2009 Sweden Åre Downhill
March 12, 2009 Sweden Åre Super G
2009-2010
9 victories
(5 DH, 3 SG, 1 SC)		 December 4, 2009 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
December 5, 2009 Canada Lake Louise Downhill
December 18, 2009 France Val d'Isere Super Combined
January 8, 2010 Austria Haus im Ennstal Downhill
January 9, 2010 Austria Haus im Ennstal Downhill
January 10, 2010 Austria Haus im Ennstal Super G
January 22, 2010 Italy Cortina Super G
January 23, 2010 Italy Cortina Downhill
January 31, 2010 Switzerland St. Moritz Super G

References

  1. ^ "Vonn, Mancuso go 1-2 in downhill". The Associated Press. 2010-02-17.
  2. ^ a b Barry Svrluga \date=2005-12-09. "From Turtle to Snow Hare". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-02-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ NBC Olympics profile of Lindsey Vonn, http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=263609.html
  4. ^ Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Lindsey Vonn profile, http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-alpine-skiing/athletes/lindsey-vonn_ath1024072PD.html
  5. ^ Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Lindsey Vonn profile, http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-alpine-skiing/athletes/lindsey-vonn_ath1024072PD.html
  6. ^ Olympic Skier Lindsey Kildow Recalls Wedding Jitters
  7. ^ Vonn, Mancuso und Co: Zweite Heimat in Zell am See-Kaprun
  8. ^ Lindsay Vonn Snow Queen, The Independent
  9. ^ http://www.usskiteam.com/alpine/news?storyId=2174
  10. ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/alpine_skiing/news%3Fslug%3Dcr-vonnmancuso021709&prov%3Dyhoo&type%3Dlgns
  11. ^ Donaldson, Amy (February 4, 2009). "Vonn wins super-G for her first title as world champ". Deseret News. Retrieved 2009-02-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ Dampf, Andrew (February 6, 2009). "Vonn DQ'd from super-combi won by Zettel". AP. Retrieved 2009-02-11. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Campbell, Dean (September 7, 2009). "Lindsey Vonn switches to ski supplier Head". CTV. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  14. ^ Willemsen, Eric (December 28, 2009). "Lindsey Vonn falls, bruises bone in left arm". AP. Retrieved 2009-12-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ Boniface, Dan (January 14, 2010). "Vonn is Colorado's Athlete of the Year". NBCOlympics.com. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  16. ^ BBC (2010-01-31). "American Lindsey Vonn claims world super-G title". Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  17. ^ Almond, Elliott (February 3, 2010). "A gold medal could make Lindsey Vonn the darling of the Vancouver Games". Mercury News. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  18. ^ "US star Vonn reveals shin injury". Bangkok Post. February 11, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  19. ^ "Vonn's husband expects her to race at Vancouver". Associated Press. February 2, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  20. ^ Michael C. Lewis (2010-02-13). "Bad weather giving Vonn extra time to heal". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  21. ^ Associated Press (2010-02-17). "USA's Lindsey Vonn Takes Gold in Downhill". CBS Sports.
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