The comeback from the comeback might not be over for Lindsey Vonn. In a candid podcast interview with NBC’s TODAY show host Craig Melvin, Vonn revealed she is still considering a return to ski racing — despite a devastating crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics that nearly cost her leg.
“It did not end the way I had hoped.”
— Lindsey Vonn
“I never got a final run. I never got to say goodbye,” Vonn said, explaining why the idea of one last return still lingers. In alpine ski racing, a “final run” is a long-standing tradition. Retiring athletes often take a celebratory last run — sometimes in costume — saluted by coaches lining the course and greeted in the finish by teammates and rivals who have become close friends over years on tour. Skis raised, hugs exchanged, crowds cheering — it’s an emotional farewell. This season, skiers including Alexis Pinturault, AJ Ginnis, Ilka Štuhec, and Dave Ryding all took their final bow.
However, Vonn never got that celebratory final run. Instead of a farewell, her last race was snatched away by injury — again. Her final memory is a violent crash, a helicopter evacuation, and a slew of surgeries, followed by a long road to recovery. “I remember everything, it was very severe,” the 41-year-old said. “I have never been in so much pain before.” She added that she has not watched footage of the crash. “I don’t need to relive that experience again.”
Vonn also worried the Olympic crash could overshadow what had been a remarkable season — or even an extraordinary career. At the time of the accident, she had won two World Cup races and added three more podiums, putting her at the top of the downhill standings. Her career total stands at 84 World Cup victories. “I don’t want 13 seconds to define my career — because it’s so much more than that,” she said.
Some athletes worry about finding meaning after retirement. It is not something Vonn has struggled with. She spent six years away from the sport and built a full life beyond racing. “I have a life that’s very busy and very full,” she said. But she admitted there is still something missing. “But it will never be ski racing.” Ski racing continues to occupy a unique place in her life. “I have so much that fulfills my life without ski racing,” she said. Still, she acknowledged the pull. “It’s just something that I love doing.”
That tension — between a full life off the hill and an unfinished ending on it — is what keeps the door open.
The emotional weight of that unfinished ending hit the next day. “My career, the way I wanted to end it is not going to happen,” Vonn said, describing when the reality set in after the crash. “I worked so hard, and I was having so much fun and enjoying the sport that I love.” More than the physical pain, it was the lack of closure that lingered. “I did not get to say goodbye to my teammates, to my coaches,” she added, calling it “a lot to process.” That moment was compounded by personal loss. The same night as her crash, Vonn’s dog, Leo, passed away — amplifying an already devastating experience.
For now, recovery has become her full-time focus — and it is as intense as anything from her racing career. She described a daily routine built around rehabilitation: two hours of physical therapy, time in a hyperbaric chamber, and another hour to 90 minutes in the gym. It is a disciplined, almost obsessive schedule, mirroring the mindset that defined her decades on the World Cup circuit.
But even with that structure, doubt has crept in. “It’s hard for me to look past the crash myself,” Vonn said. “And if I can’t look past it, then what’s the world going to think?” She described this injury as uniquely difficult — from weeks in the hospital to the loss of independence that came with being in a wheelchair, something she had never experienced before.
Still, the competitor’s mindset hasn’t gone anywhere. “I still visualize myself making it to the finish line and winning,” she said — a telling insight into how her mind continues to operate. That vision often leads back to Cortina d’Ampezzo, a venue long considered her “living room” after 12 career victories there.
It is clear there is still something unresolved. With the ending taken from her so abruptly, the question is no longer whether she can move on — she already has — but whether she wants to. “Maybe one more race… maybe I will race again. I don’t know,” Vonn said. “It might be fun to do one more run.”
That possibility — even if uncertain — is very real for her. Would she really race again, Melvin queried Vonn, after everything she had gone through? “Much to my family’s dismay, yes,” Vonn admitted. Her father did not hold back after the crash, expressing his hope for an end to his daughter’s racing career publicly. But while Vonn can understand her father’s concern for her well-being, her competitive nature dominates. “I am surprised he said that, because if you know me, you know the one way to get me to do something is to tell me I can’t do that.” While Vonn admitted how stressful it would have been for her father to watch and acknowledged that his comment came from a good place, she chuckled, “but yeah, he probably should not have said that.”
If Vonn has proven one thing in the last 18 months, it’s that it’s better to not underestimate her. She has rewritten sporting history so many times, it would be foolish to assume to know her limits in this sport, which she so clearly loves with every fibre.
