A lot has happened since Lindsey Vonn became America's sweetheart at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
How close did she come to losing her career thanks to a back injury?
Is she actually directing movies now?
Here's the stunning transformation of Lindsey Vonn.
Widely regarded as the most successful female ski racer in the world, she was born as Lindsey
Kildow on October 18, 1984 to parents Linda Krohn and Alan Kildow.
Her father was a ski champion in his youth, winning a junior national championship before
suffering a career-ending injury when he was 18.
"Hurt my knee, and that was the end of my career."
Kildow was deeply invested in his daughter's skiing career.
Though Kildow and Vonn have had their share of ups and downs over the years, including
a much-publicized period of estrangement, the father and daughter seem to have reconciled.
In December of 2017, Vonn shared a sweet selfie with her dad, captioned:
"I just did what my dad told me to do, 'never, never give up!'
Love you dad."
Many people aren't lucky enough to meet their childhood idols.
For 10-year-old Lindsey Vonn, meeting her hero, Picabo Street, wasn't a matter of luck.
Street, a world-famous alpine skier and gold medalist, remembers that moment well.
She told NBC that she was signing autographs and taking pictures at a ski shop outside
of Minneapolis when she noticed the young Vonn, who refused to peel her eyes away from
her hero.
Years later, both Vonn and Street made the 2002 U.S. Olympic team.
From there, the two built both a friendship and a mentorship that lasted through Vonn's
development into a world champion.
When Vonn had a skiing accident in 2006 that nearly ended her career, Street visited her
in the hospital to offer a shoulder to cry on and words of advice.
Street's kindness and mentorship has clearly impacted Vonn in a major way; she told NBC
that her idol was the inspiration behind The Lindsey Vonn Foundation, which offers scholarships,
as well as educational and athletic opportunities to young girls.
She said:
"I want to give the girls of the next generation someone to look up to, just like I looked
up to Picabo Street."
Most teenagers are preoccupied with prom and planning graduation trips.
In 2002, 17-year-old Lindsey Vonn had a different set of priorities.
The first item on her to-do list?
Make Olympic history, of course.
She was known as Lindsey Kildow when she made her Olympic debut in Salt Lake City.
She was not quite the Olympic world champion we know today; however, she proved with her
earnest performance on the slopes that she was well on her way to Olympic gold.
At the tender age of 17, Vonn became the only American woman to place among the top 10 at
the 2002 Olympic Games, placing sixth in her combined event.
While this is certainly an accomplishment at any age, it was particularly special for
Vonn — Picabo Street, her childhood hero, had also competed in the Games.
In fact, Street presented Vonn with a hair wrap the night before her Olympic debut.
Vonn credits both Street and that hair wrap for her impressive debut performance, telling
NBC:
"It really made me feel faster.
I think that it worked!"
Behind every Olympic gold medalist lies the story of rivalry, competition, and glory — at
least, this was the case for Lindsey Vonn.
Her journey to her first Olympic gold medal reads like the plot of a Disney Channel Original
Movie
Vonn and Julia Mancuso were friends as teens, when they were both top-ranked junior skiers.
At the time, Mancuso was dominating the slopes.
Vonn, on the other hand, was polishing her own style — she was far more rugged and
out of control.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the competitive tension that existed between the two friends
was palpable.
One day, while on a bike ride together through the mountainside in California, Mancuso left
Vonn in her dust — an experience Vonn said left her feeling like "a fool."
The biking incident proved to Vonn that her training regimen wasn't up to par.
Instead of wallowing in envy of her frenemy, she immediately began working to improve her
own training process — a move that ultimately earned her the gold medal during the downhill
skiing portion of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Mancuso won silver.
During an interview upon accepting her medal, Mancuso commented on Vonn's "perfectionist"
training regimen — perhaps not realizing she was the one who inspired it all.
Sometimes all the motivation you need lies within a little healthy competition.
After her debut Olympic performance in 2002, all eyes were on Lindsey Vonn.
She had carved a name for herself as a young skier to watch, and was expected to bring
home gold from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
During a practice run before the opening ceremony, Vonn crashed while speeding down a slope at
60 miles-per-hour.
She was immediately rushed to the hospital via helicopter, where she remembers the doctors
telling her she had probably broken her back.
She was devastated, certain this injury would be the one to end her short-lived career.
Luckily for Vonn, she was only badly bruised.
Despite her injury, she refused to give up her spot on the slopes — she competed in
the downhill competition only two days after the crash, finishing in eighth place.
In 2007, 23-year-old Lindsey took home a different kind of gold — this time, on her finger.
She started dating Thomas Vonn in 2005.
Though he was nine years her senior, the two wasted no time entering into a relationship
that was both romantic and professional.
A fellow Olympian himself, Thomas carved out a place as a mentor for his future bride,
much to her father's chagrin.
Vonn has cited this tension as one of the causes of the strained relationship she had
with her father for years.
The two married in September 2007.
Vonn recalled experiencing major jitters on the day of her wedding, telling People that
she almost had a full-blown panic attack.
The couple called it quits in 2011 after four years of marriage, though Vonn opted to keep
her married name.
In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Vonn revealed that she and her ex-husband "don't talk."
Is a second marriage in the cards for this ski racing powerhouse?
Don't count on it.
She told Vogue:
"I am definitely not getting married.
To anyone."
Seems like the only time you'll catch Vonn wearing all white is on the slopes.
In March 2013, just over a year after her first marriage ended, Lindsey Vonn announced
her new relationship with world-famous golfing champion, Tiger Woods.
In a now-deleted statement posted to her Facebook page, Vonn told fans:
"Our relationship evolved from a friendship into something more over these past few months
and it has made me very happy."
Woods also took the relationship to social media by linking to photos with his new girlfriend
on Twitter.
The couple parted ways three years later.
While Vonn told The New York Times that she has no regrets, she cited her lack of dating
experience before marrying her first husband and added that starting a relationship so
soon after her divorce wasn't the best idea.
Still, Lindsey Vonn and Tiger Woods are on good terms.
In a January 2018 interview with Sports Illustrated, Vonn said:
"I loved him and we're still friends [...] I hope this latest comeback sticks.
I hope he goes back to winning tournaments."
While her support of her ex is certainly admirable, it's hard not to detect just a hint of shade
in Vonn's comment.
Isn't that what exes are for?
Don Kildow, Vonn's beloved grandfather, passed away suddenly in November 2017 — only months
before Vonn's supposed final Olympics competition.
She told CNN in interview:
"He's been such a big part of my life, and I had really hoped that he would be alive
to see me."
In a touching tribute to her grandfather, Vonn wrote his initials on the front of her
helmet for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The world-famous skier visited her grandparents as much as she could at their home in Milton,
Wisconsin.
In one of her last visits with her grandfather before he passed away, the two spoke with
NBC about her journey to PyeongChang.
Kildow, formerly a competitive ski jumper, said that he used the skills he'd learned
working as an engineer during the Korean war to build his town's first ski slope.
And so, the family tradition began.
On February 16, Vonn posted a picture to her Instagram from PyeongChang, captioning it
with a dedication to her grandfather:
"This time I have a more important mission; win for my late Grandpa."
During their sit down with NBC, Kildow was asked what it felt like to see Vonn race.
He got choked up as he patted his hand over his chest and simply said:
"The heart don't stop."
"Grandpa, I love you."
In a February 2018 interview with Savannah Guthrie for "Today," Lindsey Vonn seemed optimistic
about what she says is the final race of her career.
Ultimately, she earned the bronze medal in her final downhill race on February 21, 2018.
Though she didn't take home gold, Vonn broke a world record — at 33, she became the oldest
woman to ever win a Winter Games Alpine medal.
She had hoped to win gold in her late grandfather's memory, but Vonn seemed grateful for the medal
in a tweet she issued after the race.
She wrote:
"Today I won a bronze medal that felt like gold.
It was an amazing day that I will never forget."
Self-love can be hard, even for Olympic champions.
In spite of all of Lindsey Vonn's success, she has struggled with learning to love herself.
In her memoir "Rise," she admitted that instead of learning to love herself, she sought fulfillment
in romantic relationships.
She wrote:
"I wanted someone to love me, to make up for the ways I didn't yet love myself."
She's worked on it, though, and thinks she's now in a place where she can have a strong
relationship with someone — not that she's in a rush, as she's finally learned to be
happy on her own.
She told People:
"I really enjoy [spending time with myself] now.
It's nice to be comfortable enough with life and yourself to be alone and happy with it.
I feel lucky."
Vonn was diagnosed with depression at 18, and has dealt with it throughout all of her
adult life.
Thankfully, she's had the support of others during times of extreme lows.
"I had a great support system, and that's really what got me through it, you know – being
able to lean on other people."
These days, she's taking antidepressants and practicing self-care, which have helped quite
a bit.
She told People:
"It's definitely been a roller coaster of a journey.
But I'm a work in progress and I continue to work on myself every day."
Vonn may be retired from professional skiing, but her Olympic days aren't behind her.
Given her knowledge of the sport as well as of the Games, she was perfectly primed for
her position as a commentator at the event and was named an NBC correspondent for the
2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
As Molly Solomon, Executive Producer & President of NBC Olympics Production, put it:
"[Vonn] will provide a perspective unique to an athlete known for excellence, intensity,
and determination on the world's biggest and most competitive stage."
Vonn expressed her excitement at being able to participate in the Olympics from this new
perspective, saying:
"My first memories of the Olympics were from NBC broadcast, so I am very excited to be
working with a team that has been there for so many amazing Olympic moments."
Lindsey Vonn is a woman of many talents, and her retirement from professional skiing is
giving her the opportunity to explore them more.
One of her newest ventures is a foray into directing — she made directorial debut with
2022's "Picabo," which explores the life of fellow skier Picabo Street.
In the film, which Vonn co-directed with Frank Marshall, Vonn can be seen interviewing Street.
Street selected Vonn for the job as she was searching for "authenticity" in the film.
Street told Just Women's Sports:
"She knew me already as a person [...] and as a teammate, so she did a lot of the digging
behind it all herself and was really ready for the interview when we did it."
Vonn told Forbes that working with celebrated director Frank Marshall was "intimidating"
— as was the fact that Street was her "childhood idol."
Nonetheless, she worked through the nerves and is proud of the finished product.
She said:
"I think in the end we accomplished something really amazing, which is to be able to tell
Picabo's story in a very authentic and raw way, and I know that she's very proud of the
project and is very happy with the outcome."
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