Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn (born October 18, 1984 in Saint Paul, Minnesota), born as Kildow, is an elite member of the U.S. Ski Team's alpine skiing program. She was raised in the Twin Cities area (in Burnsville, Minnesota) and was on skis at age 2 before moving into Erich Sailer's renowned development program at Buck Hill. She commuted to Colorado to train for a couple of years before her family moved to Vail in the late 1990s. She married fellow 2002 Olympian and former U.S. Ski Team athlete Thomas Vonn on September 29, 2007.She speaks German and is good friends with German colleague Maria Riesch.

After climbing through the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, she made her Alpine Skiing World Cup debut on November 18, 2000 in Park City. Two years later, she made her first U.S. Olympic Team and competed at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Career

In 2008 Lindsey Vonn won the overall Alpine Skiing World Cup title to complete the first American sweep of the men's and women's overall titles in 25 years. She also won the Downhill World Cup title and the US Alpine Championships Combined (downhill and slalom) title, marking her best ski season to date. In 1999 Vonn became the first American to win at Italy's Trofeo Topolino (for skiers of 11-14 age) where she was victorious in slalom. In her Olympic debut at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Vonn raced in both slalom and combined in Salt Lake City, with her best result coming with sixth in slalom. On March 4, 2003 she earned a silver medal in downhill in the Junior World Championship at Puy St. Vincent, France.

On March 24, 2004, Vonn was the downhill silver medalist at the U.S. Alpine Championships held in Jackson, Wyoming. In the December of the same year Vonn climbed onto the World Cup podium for the first time in her career after claiming the downhill victory in Lake Louise, Alberta. She would go on to capture five more World Cup podiums over the next two months.In 2005, she competed in four races at her first World Championships held in Bormio, Italy, pulling in fourth place finishes in both the downhill and the combined. She was also ninth in super G, yet failed to finish the giant slalom.

In her second Olympic Games, while training for the downhill race on February 13 2006 in San Sicario, Italy, Vonn crashed and was evacuated by helicopter to Torino, where she was hospitalized overnight. Despite a bruised hip, she returned the following day to compete and finished eighth. The gritty performance earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, as voted by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, U.S. alumni Olympians and members of the media for best representing the Olympic Spirit.

Vonn earned her first "big race" medals with silver in both downhill and super G at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 held in Åre, Sweden. A training crash before the slalom caused her a low-level ACL sprain to her right knee, ending her season four weeks early. Nevertheless, she finished third in the women's 2007 World Cup disciplines of downhill and Super G.

Vonn's recovery during the 2007-08 season, however, was stunning, bringing her to a new level of success. Vonn won the overall World Cup title, joining men's overall champion Bode Miller as the first Americans to win both competitions since the 1983 season. She was also the World Cup discipline leader in downhill. Vonn also established a new all-time record for most downhill victories by an American with ten, winning at Crans-Montana on March 8. She won a small crystal globe in downhill and the large one for the overall-win of the Ski World Cup in season 07/08.

Vonn was also a in numerous world wide articles throughout the 2007-2008 season such as Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Denver Post and LA Times. Vonn appeared in Men's Vouge in October 2007 and will be in Outside Magazine in the fall of 2008.

External links

* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/03/04/lindsey.vonn0310/ Sports Illustrated Feb. '08]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/sports/othersports/15ski.html?scp=10&sq=Lindsey%2BVonn&st=nyt%20highlighting/ New York Times April '08]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-02-20-vonn-1c-cover_N.htm/ USA Today Feb. '08]
* [http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/21/sports/sp-cup21/ LA Times Feb. '08]

World cup victories

13 total victories (10 downhill, 2 Super G, 1 combined)

External links

* [http://www.lindseyvonn.com/ Personal website]
* [http://www.usskiteam.com/public/team.php?sN=2&pA=2&dId=2&aId=82 Lindsey Vonn's U.S. Ski Team Biography]
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfvNAlmwe0 Lindsey Vonn's U.S. Ski Team video mini-profile]