Souhan: Lindsey Vonn returns to U.S. Ski Team, defying risks for another chance to compete

Is Lindsey Vonn returning for the glory, or more gold? To prove something to herself, or to the world?

To paraphrase Spike Lee’s famous line:

It’s gotta be the livestock.

Vonn was so dominant in Europe during her record-breaking skiing career that she wound up with a menagerie. She won a pregnant cow in France in 2005, a goat in Austria in 2009, and a calf in France in 2014.

What better gift for The GOAT (greatest of all time) than … a sheep-like animal with horns?

Vonn, the Minnesota native, announced this week that she will return to competition after retiring because of injuries in 2019. She recently had knee replacement surgery and began training around the world, and her return to the U.S. Ski Team means there is a chance she could compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan & Cortina, Italy.

At 40, she may not be able to burnish her résumé, but she will provide a reminder of her reputation as one of the world’s toughest athletes.

Vonn was my gateway Olympian.

Decades ago, traditional American sportswriters who were men were referred to as “stick-and-ball guys” by those interested in Olympic sports.

Guilty. I had spent most of my career covering football and baseball.

To prepare for my first Olympics, which was in 2006 in Turin, Italy, I worked on an in-depth story on Vonn.

She grew up in Apple Valley and trained as a child at Buck Hill in Burnsville.

Buck Hill could not prepare her for the rigors of world-class skiing anymore than playing putt-putt golf could prepare someone for the Masters, so, once she became known as a prodigy, she began training periodically in Colorado, and her family eventually moved her there in the late ‘90s.

On television, the Olympic downhill looks challenging. When you ride a bus up the steep switchbacks in the Alps to get to the course, you think of the event as more of a death wish than a race.

To stand at the bottom of the course in 2006 was to wonder why anyone would throw themselves off the side of a mountain and rely on only two planks strapped to their feet to survive.

Then Vonn, who would become one of the most decorated skiers in history, proved how daring she could be, and how dangerous her sport was.

She fell during a training run, suffering an injured back, thigh and pelvis. She went from her hospital bed to the starting line to finish seventh in the Super G and eighth in the downhill. She failed to medal, but became a symbol of toughness and daring.

Vonn is returning not to chase Shiffrin but, it seems, because she loves her sport and would love to chase another Olympic medal, however unrealistic that goal may be.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing in Cortina and I’ve had a lot of success in Cortina,” Vonn said. “I don’t know what the next few months and the next year and a half hold for me. So I can’t say right now if it’s a possibility.”

By returning she is risking the health of her knees, and every other body part. She is risking failure. She is taking a risk that the lasting memory of her will be of a diminished athlete faltering on the world stage.