Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Caroline Vonn is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships second only amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first one for an American woman. She also won a record eight World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008–2013, 2015, 2016), five titles in super-G (2009–2012, 2015), and three consecutive titles in the combined (2010–2012). 

In 2016, she won her 20th World Cup crystal globe title, the overall record for men or women, surpassing Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, who won 19 globes from 1975 to 1984. She has the third highest super ranking of all skiers, men or women. Vonn is one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined and won 82 World Cup races in her career. 

Her total of 82 World Cup victories was a women's record until January 2023, when it was surpassed by Mikaela Shiffrin. Only Shiffrin and Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, with 86 World Cup victories, have more victories than Vonn. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 and 2011), and four overall World Cup titles, Vonn is one of the most successful American ski racers, and is considered one of the greatest of all skiers.

In 2010, Vonn received the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award, and was the United States Olympic Committee's sportswoman of the year. Injuries caused Vonn to miss parts of several seasons, including almost all of the 2014 season and most of the 2013 season. While recovering from injury, she worked as a correspondent for NBC News, covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In 2019, she announced her retirement, citing her injuries.

Born Lindsey Caroline Kildow in St. Paul, Minnesota, she is the daughter of Linda Anne (née Krohn) and Alan Lee Kildow.[9] She grew up in the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Burnsville, Minnesota. Her father is of Irish ancestry and her mother is of German and Norwegian ancestry. Vonn was on skis at age two before moving into Erich Sailer's renowned development program at Burnsville's Buck Hill, which also produced slalom racer Kristina Koznick. Her father, who had won a national junior title before a knee injury at 18, "pushed" her very hard, according to Sailer.

When Vonn was 9 years old, she met Olympic gold medalist ski racer 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 served as Vonn's mentor in skiing. Vonn commuted to Colorado to train for several years before her family moved to Vail, Colorado in the late 1990s.

Vonn attended University of Missouri High School, an online program through the university's Center for Distance and Independent Study. She speaks German fluently. Despite not attending a traditional 4-year university, Vonn has gone on to participate in the four-day Harvard Business School's “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” program. Lindsey Vonn's mother Linda Krohn died in August 2022 following a one year battle with ALS.