Just like that, the Olympic downhill Vonn had spent two years trying to reach, and six years believing she might never see again, was over. View image in fullscreen Lindsey Vonn had won a record 12 World Cup races at Cortina. This season alone, she reached the podium in all five World Cup downhills she entered, winning twice and seizing the red bib as the discipline’s season-long leader. It only measures who you are in that single moment between the start gate and the finish line. In a sport built on confronting risk rather than avoiding it, that may be as honest an ending as any champion is allowed.

Source: The Guardian February 08, 2026 16:46 UTC