Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn says she is ‘getting pretty tired’ of hearing the criticism about her comeback to competitive skiing.
After retiring in 2019 due to several injuries, Vonn announced in November that she would be returning to competing because she had been feeling good following her knee replacement surgery. She made her return at the FIS Fall Festival at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado earlier this month and is preparing to step back into the World Cup circuit.
While Vonn has said she feels great coming back to the sport, there are some people questioning why she is doing it.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Michaela Dorfmeister suggested on Austrian TV that ‘Vonn should see a psychologist’ and asked, ‘Does she want to kill herself?’
Four-time overall World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen also said there is a risk Vonn could ‘tear her artificial knee to pieces’ and he has a feeling she ‘hasn’t recognized the meaning and purpose of her other life in recent years.’
Vonn fired back at the critics on social media.
‘You know, I’m getting pretty tired of people predicting negative things about my future,’ she wrote on Wednesday. ‘Is there a reason all former Swiss skiers think this way? Did they all become doctors and I missed it, because they talk like they know more than the best doctors in the world.’
Ahead of this weekend’s event, Vonn also discussed what led to her feeling like she could get back to competing.
‘I’ve been thinking about getting a replacement for several years. I did a lot of research. I know people think that I’m insane. But I am actually kind of smart. I have done a few operations, so I know a few doctors. I talked to a lot of them,” Vonn said according to the Associated Press. “I talked to (extreme skier) Chris Davenport, who also had a partial knee replacement and he skis like 150 days a year. … So that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Vonn, 40, is seeking to become the oldest female skier to win a World Cup race. She has won 82 World Cup races throughout her illustrious career, which stood as the most for a female skier until her record was broken in January 2023 by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin.