Lindsey Vonn Is Officially Out of Retirement: 'I Hope the U.S. Ski Team Uniform Still Fits'

After weeks of teasing the news, the formerly retired pro ski racer has announced intentions to compete again.

Lindsey Vonn / Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

After weeks of speculation, Lindsey Vonn has confirmed the rumors: she is returning to professional ski racing.

When she retired in 2019, she didn’t have any “intention” of making a comeback, she recently told the New York Times. Her right knee had sustained too many racing injuries and undergone too many surgeries. She was in too much discomfort to continue competing.

But a knee replacement surgery in April changed things. Vonn committed to the procedure in the hopes of regaining full mobility. She came out of it with the ability to ski pain-free again. It wasn’t an outcome she was necessarily expecting, but it was—of course—welcome all the same.

This Friday, Vonn will rejoin the U.S. ski team. The move, which the 40-year-old described as both “amazing and definitely not planned,” will hopefully lead to racing on the World Cup circuit this coming winter. This fall, she secretly kicked off her training in Europe and New Zealand, and the experience proved fruitful. Vonn has high hopes of returning to racing sooner rather than later, but she is tempering her expectations, too. “I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself because I have quite a few hoops to jump through,” she said. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope to be racing. I have aspirations. I love to go fast. How fast can I go? I don’t know.”

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Ultimately, Vonn—who has three Olympic medals, eight world championship medals and 82 World Cup race wins to her name—simply wants to “enjoy” the experience. “I’m not chasing anything; I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone,” she explained. “With what I’ve done in my career, I’m thankful I can be in this position. I don’t have any pressure. It’s just me and the mountain like it was in the beginning.”

Over the past few months, as the Minnesota native has been teasing her return to competition, she has made this mentality crystal clear. In early November, alongside a trio of photos of Vonn on the slopes, she shared a message to that effect: “Loving the process, no matter where it leads… because it’s always been about the journey,” she wrote. “One step at a time, I will get to where I’m meant to go.”

For Vonn, a return to competition isn’t about adding to her long list of accomplishments. It’s about partaking—yet again—in a sport that she loves and has dedicated much of her life to.

But right now, her biggest concern pertains to the U.S. Ski Team uniform. “I hope the @usskiteam uniform still fits…” she joked in her comeback announcement.