Lindsey Vonn '99.9 percent sure' 2018 will be her last Olympics

Henry Bushnell
·Senior soccer reporter
·3 min read
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Lindsey Vonn will speed down a South Korean mountain at 90 miles per hour on Wednesday. She’ll do so again on Thursday. And when she reaches the finish line, a golden but tumultuous Olympic career will likely be over.

How likely?

“I feel like it’s 99.9 percent sure,” Vonn said Tuesday, one day before she pushes out of the starting gate in the downhill, her best best event.

Vonn, 33, admitted – albeit with a smile – that she was “counting on some medical miracles to extend my career.”

“But who knows? Maybe something will come out and they’ll fix my knee up and I’ll be like Robo knee and I’ll ski for like 10 more years,” she said. “That’d be ideal.’’

Vonn, who debuted at the Olympics as a 17-year-old all the way back in 2002, won her first (and so far only) gold medal in Vancouver in 2010. She would have entered 2014 as a medal favorite, but tore the ACL in her right knee less than three months before the Games.

Lindsey Vonn during a downhill training run at the 2018 Winter Olympics. (Getty)
Lindsey Vonn during a downhill training run at the 2018 Winter Olympics. (Getty)

Had it not been for the ACL tear, PyeongChang would have been her fifth Olympics. Instead, they’re her fourth, and she’s doubtful she’ll make it back for a fifth go at age 37 in 2022.

Vonn also tweeted that Wednesday “will most likely be my last Olympic Downhill race.”

The downhill begins 9 p.m. ET Tuesday night in the U.S. – Wednesday morning in Korea. The combined event, Vonn’s last in PyeongChang, was originally slated for Friday in Korea, but has been rescheduled for Thursday due to weather.

Vonn clarified that she won’t be discarding her skis right after the Games end. She also clarified that her assumption that this week will be her last at the Olympics isn’t about her love for skiing. It’s simply based on her fitness and health.

“If I could physically continuing skiing, then I absolutely will,” she said. “But at this point it takes a lot to make my knee good enough to ski downhill. It has to be pretty solid to push yourself at these speeds and be able to trust it.’’

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