By John Henderson
“DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!”
No sentence ever uttered on American television carried more emotion in U.S. Olympic history. Where will Al Michaels be Sunday when Vail’s own Lindsey Vonn tries to evoke the same reaction in Olympic downhill skiing?
And she won’t have an opposing coach pulling the best hockey goalkeeper in the world after the first period to help her out.
While “miracle” and the United States’ ice hockey win over the USSR in the 1980 Olympic semifinals have been synonymous for nearly half a century, try measuring anything Olympian against what Vonn could do. She might win a medal – even gold – after overcoming the following:
- Forty-one years of age, which would make her the oldest woman to win an Olympic skiing medal since ... Lindsey Vonn won bronze in the downhill in 2018.
- Less than two years removed from a partially replaced knee that initially was designed merely to help her walk properly again.
- Fourteen months removed from a five-year retirement.
- Nine days removed from blowing out her ACL, damaging her meniscus and suffering bone bruises.
“I’m a week away from something that, first of all, I never thought was possible,” she said during Tuesday’s press conference in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. “This is all icing on the cake. I never expected to be here. I felt like this was an amazing opportunity to close out my career the way I wanted to. But I don’t want to have any regrets.”
Of course, this could all be wasted cyberspace. Surviving Friday’s first downhill training run without being helicoptered off Cortina’s course is no indication that the damaged knee from a fall in her last World Cup race won’t affect her performance Sunday (3:30 a.m. MST).
But look at what she has done this season and dare take the field and bet against her. She has made the podium in seven of the eight downhill and Super-G World Cup races that she finished, winning two of five downhills.
She leads the World Cup downhill standings with 400 points, a mountain range ahead of Germany’s second-place Emma Aicher with 256. Vonn is third in Super-G standings with 190 with Italy’s Sofia Goggia leading with 280.
Then remember she’s been here before. She has rebounded from injuries to win an Olympic gold and two bronzes. She has more World Cup downhill wins (84) and Crystal Globes (eight) than anyone in history. She has also won 12 World Cup races at Cortina, more than anyone.
Barring a catastrophe in Saturday’s last training session, Vonn will race the downhill Sunday, join Colorado slalomist Mikaela Shiffrin in the inaugural team combined event on Tuesday and the Super-G on Thursday. Vonn is optimistic enough to not even think about knee surgery.
“As many times as I’ve crashed, I’ve always gotten up,” she said. “As many times as I’ve failed, I’ve always won.”
True. But now she’s coming off a five-year retirement and a blown ACL at 41. This isn’t like a pulled hammy at 21.
Italian TV has called her “Wonder Woman” all season. This comeback should have given her the handle “Titanium Woman.”
It all began after the 2019 World Championships where she suffered multiple bruises in a Super-G crash but still won bronze in the downhill.
She retired and settled into the life of celebrity ex-skier and model. She wrote her memoir, “Rise: My Story.” She co-directed a documentary on U.S. skiing great Picabo Street. She landed a swimwear line with Head, her long-time sponsor. She invested in two National Women’s Soccer League teams.
She worked on her foundation, which awarded more than $1 million in scholarships for girls with athletic and academic promise. She was an NBC commentator for the 2020 Winter Olympics.
Her life was full – except for what she missed in the starting gate, staring down at a mountain she’d rip through at 85 mph.
“When I retired, that first year was like, How do I get out of this funk?” she told Time magazine in an October cover story. “What is going to make me feel like I have a purpose?”
For starters, it would help if she could walk without pain. She limped. She wore a lot of comfortable shoes. Forget winning an Olympic medal.
How about just getting to the car?
She turned to Dr. Martin Roche, the renowned orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Fla. The knee has three parts: two on each side and one under the kneecap. In April 2024, Roche replaced the outside part, which suffered severe cartilage damage and years of bone on bone wear, with a piece of titanium.
After the surgery, she could finally straighten her leg. She walked without pain. She returned to the gym. She progressed so quickly, she asked Roche if she could try wakeboarding.
Um, sure. She won’t wakeboard at 85 mph.
She balanced so well, she wanted to try skiing, the sport that had put her under the knife nine times. She performed well enough to make the U.S. team and had a so-so 2024-25 season. In six races, she earned one podium: a second place in the Super-G in Sun Valley, Idaho.
But this season, she has returned to her throne as the best female downhiller in the world.
“This whole journey, this whole comeback, is about always believing in yourself,” she said Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter how old or how young you are, if you believe, and you work hard, anything is possible. A lot of times people’s minds are closed and don’t see what’s possible because they don’t look.
“I’ve always had my head up and my eyes open and my heart open for any opportunity that lies in front of me. I hope that everyone realizes that they can do it, too.”
Though the skiing world is amazed, the medical world has an explanation. Modern medicine is the true miracle here. Roche performed the partial knee replacement with a MAKO Robot designed by Stryker. It’s more precise than any human hand.
Benjamin Levine, a professor of exercise sciences and sports cardiologist at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, cites four reasons for Vonn’s comeback.
“One, she had a great surgeon,” he said in a phone interview. “Second, she had spectacular physical therapists. Third, she has extraordinary dedication and commitment. Four, she had a training team that worked with her to slowly incrementally improve strength and muscular endurance and skiing form.
“There’s no magic to this thing. Age is a chronic phenomenon. Peopleage at different rates.”
Dr. Michael Joyner, an expert in human performance, is 67 and remembers old surgery and rehab methods like anthropologists remembering the Paleolithic era.
“In the old days when someone had a knee injury or an Achilles injury, they were put in a cast,” Joyner said. “Rehab has just incredibly changed. People have these big operations and rehab in a very limited period of time. In a number of sports, athletes who have what were career-ending or career-altering injuries now come completely back.
“What you see in Vonn is just the latest chapter of the improved orthopedic surgery, of improved techniques and better rehab.”
That covers the physical part. What about the mental part? Sunday, in front of the world, she’ll have 90 seconds to race down the mountain as the highest-rated downhiller in the world but only nine days removed from blowing out her ACL.
How has her outlook on fear changed since she was too young to know better?
“I’ve never been afraid,” she said. “I’ve always been the adventurer, the kid who climbed the tree. My grandfather always called me a daredevil. It’s just always who I’ve been. I’ve never been afraid, of much in my life. That’s why I’m a downhiller.
“I like risks. I like going fast. I like pushing myself to the limit. I love being on the mountain. It’s an amazing feeling and it’s one I’ll never have again. I’m lucky to get this chance one more time.”
She’ll wear a knee brace. The ACL stabilizes the knee and without it, the knee components can shift. Since last week’s crash, she has had advice from everyone in her world. She even remembered advice from her first coach who is no longer in her world.
She was asked what her late childhood coach, Erich Sailer, would tell her. It sounds as if she is taking his advice to heart the most.
“He’d say, ‘It’s only 90 seconds. What’s 90 seconds in a lifetime? It’s nothing. You can do it,’” she said. “I’m not letting this slip through my fingers. I’m going to do it.”
John Henderson is a former sportswriter for The Denver Post and lives in Rome.
