Lindsey Vonn's haters boo her bronze medal on social media

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Lindsey Vonn is indisputably one of the greatest American skiers of all time, and at 33 years old, she found herself back on the Olympic podium for the third time in her storied career. Vonn won the bronze medal in the ladies downhill final, and although it’s an objectively impressive achievement, an increasingly familiar anti-Vonn narrative emerged yet again in comment sections and on Twitter timelines everywhere.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

She continues to draw the ire of a subsection of the internet that is offended by her anti-Donald Trump statements earlier in the Games. Before the race was even over, self-proclaimed Americans were taking to Twitter to congratulate gold medalist Sofia Goggia from Italy and Norway’s silver medalist, Ragnhild Mowinckel, for beating Vonn – and to invoke karma as the reason she failed to win the gold.

Of course there were plenty of encouraging tweets as well, and Vonn supporters were again quick to note the hypocrisy of actively rooting against an American athlete as a show of national pride or respect for the president.

In the end, it was Vonn who had the quip of the night, joking to NBC’s Heather Cox that she felt she had a good chance at the medals because “there’s no snowboarders in the race today” — a reference to Ester Ledecka’s incredible upset to win gold in the Super-G. Vonn also got incredibly emotional talking about her last downhill race and what it means to her to win a medal for her grandfather. “I’m really proud of this medal and I know he is too,” she said.

Vonn will have once more chance at a medal when she skis in her final race of the Olympics on Wednesday in the ladies combined event.

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