Lindsey Vonn, 41, wins 84th career World Cup event one month before Olympics

Hans Peter Lottermoser via Getty Images

Two weeks after officially qualifying for the 2026 Olympics, Lindsey Vonn added another victory to her legendary career total during Saturday's World Cup downhill event in Austria.

The 41-year-old Vonn finished 0.37 seconds faster than Norway's Kajsa Vickhoff Lie for her second World Cup downhill victory in four races this season. The 2010 Olympic downhill gold medalist and four-time World Cup overall winner was clocked at 81 mph, one of the fastest speeds among women skiers this season.

The win was the 84th of Vonn's storied career — two behind the all-time women's record held by Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark — and was her record-extending 45th in the downhill event.

"I knew what it was going to take to win today," Vonn said afterward. "It was a sprint, and I had to give it everything I had, definitely had to risk a little bit."

Vonn retired in 2019, but felt her competitive spark return after watching the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. She underwent knee replacement surgery in 2024 and in December won her first World Cup race in nearly six years to validate her comeback.

"I know exactly where I am and what I want to do, and my body is responding the way I wanted to," Vonn said. "I'm strong. I can pull tight radius, or I can make a long radius turn. Whatever I want to do, I can do it. And that's an amazing feeling because my body hasn't always been responding that way to me in the past. So now it's a whole other ball game, and it feels amazing. I try to enjoy every single second I'm out here because it's just so fun to go fast.”

The Olympic women's downhill will take place on Sunday, Feb. 8 at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Vonn has 12 World Cup wins in Cortina, and considers the course a home-field advantage.