The best skier of all time, Lindsey Vonn, announced on Friday that she is competing in her last race come the World Championships in Sweden, which begins on Feb. 4. Although the three-time Olympic medalist said at the Pyeongchang Winter Games that she wouldn't retire until she breaks the record for World Cup victories, Vonn told reporters in October that the 2018-19 season will be her last. It appears she's sticking to it.
NBC Sports reported in October, the 34-year-old Team USA icon revealed at a Manhattan conference that she still has her sights set on Ingemar Stenmark's record of 86 wins and considered skiing through the 2019-20 season but ultimately decided that one more round of competition is enough for her body.
"Despite extensive therapy, training and a knee brace, I am not able make the turns necessary to compete the way I know I can," she said, via The New York Post. "My body is broken beyond repair and it isn't letting me have the final season I dreamed of. My body is screaming at me to stop and it's time for me to listen."
Vonn's words contrast with her comments in South Korea, where she said she'd continue "no matter how much pain I'm in" to break Stenmark's record. But she also said at that time "it would be difficult" to continue for more than one additional season after enduring various injuries during her career. She suffered a torn ACL and MCL as well as a tibial fracture at the 2013 World Championships, re-injured her knee in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics and broke her arm in 2016, before her 2017 World Cup appearance, among other serious injuries.
Vonn's 82 career wins are the most among women, and they're just four short of Stenmark's all-time record of 86. Vonn will also finished second behind Annemarie Moser-Proll in overall titles with four. Moser-Proll finished with six in her career.
Vonn's professional career spanned an impressive 18 years, and she'll go down in history as the best female skier ever and one of the best skiers ever. She'll be giving it one more shot in Are, but given her utterly insane injury history, it's as good a time as any to hang up the skis.
