Lindsey Vonn is unstoppable. It seems that no matter what you throw at her—injuries, surgeries, doubt, haters—she comes back every time, with that radiant smile on her face.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of high-level athletes and what makes Lindsey different is truly her motivation and drive,” says Lindsay Winninger, PT, MPT, her physical therapist and founder of Sports Rehab Consulting. “She doesn’t look at injury as necessarily this huge setback. Obviously it’s disappointing, but from day one she commits to the rehab, and she doesn’t stop until the job is done.”
Even though Vonn has been forced to make some tough decisions and pull out of events that she wanted to compete in (and win), she never gives up, and she never gets down.
“No matter how many times I fall I’m going to pick myself back up that many more times. I get confidence just from working hard,” Vonn says. “I love what I do, so I want to be doing it again and I’m willing to do whatever it takes and listen to my doctors and my therapists and do whatever they tell me to do be 100% again – better than 100%.”
In her latest recovery from a fractured humerus, Winninger had Vonn use the TheraBand CLX to get back to better than 100%. “The nice part about the CLX is the loops. I can put my arm in them or I can slip my hand in the loop and I don’t have to worry about wrapping it around my hand. It just makes things a lot easier,” Vonn says. And now she’s back and has her eye on the 2018 Olympics, all-time World Cup record, and 2019 World Championships in Are, Sweden.
As she preps for the Games, check out the lows and highs of her career so far. The timeline is a dose of inspiration and proof that, chances are, Vonn will continue to win races and set records for years to come.