Lindsey Vonn ahead of World Cup comeback at age 40: ‘I wouldn’t be doing it if it was a reckless idea’

Lindsey Vonn is preparing for her World Cup return at St Moritz, Switzerland, this weekend after undergoing successful partial knee replacement surgery earlier this year – and she’s making waves doing it.

Lindsey Vonn, at the age of 40, is preparing for her World Cup return at St Moritz, Switzerland, this weekend after undergoing successful partial knee replacement surgery earlier this year – and she’s making waves doing it. Vonn recently defended her return to the World Cup circuit. Responding to those in the skiing world who are questioning her comeback, Vonn, in a post on X, said, “You know, I’m getting pretty tired of people predicting negative things about my future. It’s enough now. … Did they all become doctors and I missed it, because they talk like they know more than the best doctors in the world.” In an interview Thursday with Eurosport’s Viktoria Rebensburg, Vonn said, “I think that’s something that bothers me – is that people think that I’m taking more risks than anyone else. But I know downhill probably better than almost anyone out there.” Vonn, who had retired from competitive skiing in 2019 after 18 years on the World Cup circuit, recently competed in lower-level events in Copper Mountain, Colorado, in order to gain eligibility to compete at World Cup races. She will race in two super-G events in St. Moritz – where she has previously won five World Cup races and secured ten podiums – with one race on Saturday and the other on Sunday. “Things haven’t changed now that I’ve had a knee replacement,” Vonn said to Eurosport, which is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which is the parent company of CNN.