Lindsey Vonn spent years making split-second decisions at terrifying speeds on a ski course. On Friday, she found herself in a very different position: sitting above a grass tennis court in Newport, Rhode Island, as the chair umpire for an exhibition packed with tennis legends.

Vonn was the special guest chair umpire at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Celebrity Pro Classic on August 28, where John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Lleyton Hewitt and Martina Navratilova were among the tennis legends taking part. Still recovering from the injuries she suffered at the Milan Cortina Olympics, Vonn sat high above the grass court in white tennis attire, flashing a heart gesture to the crowd.

But the moment was about more than Vonn trying something new. She has spent months unable to do the sport that has defined her life, and stepping into another sporting world has given her a way to keep moving forward while she recovers. “Always wanted to try this… finally dipping my toes in my dream sport while on the road to recovery! It’s all about finding small victories and keeping the fire alive, no matter what,” Vonn wrote on Instagram.

She has also admitted just how difficult it has been to live outside skiing, saying, “I think it’s just something that—I mean, I’ve been, like I said, so isolated and not able to really live life outside of skiing. Like, I’m still kind of trapped in this, like, I-didn’t-have-my-Olympic-dream situation. I need to walk and be out in public and, you know, be living life.”

Tennis, however, is hardly a random choice for Vonn. The sport has been part of her athletic life for years, including as an off-season conditioning tool during her skiing career. The two sports also share some of the same demands: quick weight transfers, lateral movement, balance and awareness of where the body is in space. For Vonn, tennis was never simply something to watch from the stands.

Her connection to Jannik Sinner makes the tennis detour even more fitting. Sinner was a junior ski champion in Italy before choosing tennis at 13, and he and Vonn first met during the 2021 US Open swing in New York. They later skied together in the Alps in 2022, giving Vonn a rare connection to someone who understands both sides of the skiing-to-tennis crossover.

Vonn has praised Sinner’s movement on skis, saying, “He has an amazing kinesthetic sense, which is an important skill in both sports. He is very aware of his body in space and time, so even though he is tall, he moves fluidly and in sync.”

Sinner is only one part of Vonn’s wider life around elite sports. She has also maintained a long friendship with Lewis Hamilton and has built a business presence in sports away from skiing, including investments in Angel City FC, Utah Royals FC and League One Volleyball. The pattern is hard to miss: even when Vonn cannot compete herself, she keeps placing herself around people who do.

This is not entirely new for Vonn. During her 2013–14 recovery, she turned to tennis and Formula 1 while rebuilding after another major knee injury. After a 2016 tibial plateau fracture, she again spent time around the Formula 1 world, including visits to the Red Bull and Mercedes garages. Even during past recoveries, Vonn found ways to stay close to high-performance sport while her own body was healing.

The Part of Skiing Vonn Still Can’t Leave Behind

Vonn’s latest recovery is unlike the setbacks she has faced before. On February 8, 2026, she crashed just 13 seconds into the Olympic downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo after clipping a gate with her right arm while airborne. The crash left her with fractures to her lower left leg, left tibial plateau and right ankle, along with acute compartment syndrome. She was airlifted from the mountain and underwent emergency surgery in Italy before continuing treatment in the United States.

The recovery has been long. Vonn spent months in a wheelchair and unable to put weight on either leg, while doctors estimated at least 12 months for the major fractures to fully heal. She still faces surgery to remove the plates and screws in her legs before doctors can attempt to reconstruct her torn left ACL.

For all the time Vonn is spending around other sports, there is still one sport she has not managed to leave behind. Ski racing. Vonn has not said she is planning a comeback. In fact, when asked about racing again, she admitted she does not know what the future holds. But she also did not close the door.

“I don’t know the answer to that question because I know I’ll be happy if I do ski race again. That’s no question. But I don’t know. It might be fun to do one more — one more run.”

Then came the answer that made clear just how open that door remains.

“I mean, much to my family’s dismay, yes.”

The reason may have less to do with chasing another Olympic medal than with how abruptly her last race ended.

“It’s just that ski racing is something I love to do… And I never got a final run. I never got to say goodbye. I never got, like, any sort of closure whatsoever, that I think it leaves the door slightly open to, I don’t know, maybe I would do one more race to say goodbye, or maybe I’ll race again.”

The crash also came with a danger far beyond broken bones. Vonn developed acute compartment syndrome in her lower leg, a condition caused by severe trauma and swelling that can threaten the blood supply to the limb. Vonn later credited Dr. Tom Hackett with saving her leg, saying, “Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg from being amputated… He filleted it open and let it breathe, and he saved me.”

There was another twist to the story. Hackett was in Cortina because he had been there to monitor Vonn’s torn ACL, an injury she had suffered a week earlier in Crans-Montana. Vonn later said, “If I hadn’t done that [decided to race on the torn ACL], Tom wouldn’t have been there and wouldn’t have been able to save my leg.”

That does not mean Vonn has mapped out a return to the 2030 Olympics. When asked about the next Winter Games, she pointed to the obvious challenge: she would be 45 years old. “If I were to do it, I would only do it if I could be fast. But, I don’t know, that’s a long way off. I would be 45 during the next Olympics. That might be a little bit too much, but we’ll see.”

For now, the 2030 Olympics remain a possibility Vonn herself has left unresolved, not a comeback plan. What she has been clearer about is why she still thinks about skiing at all: she never got the final run she wanted.

The tennis court may be only one part of what Vonn is trying to find during a recovery that has forced her to slow down in a way skiing never allowed.

She has spent months learning how to live outside the sport that shaped her life. Tennis gives her a way to stay around competition. Her friendships keep her close to other athletes. And the possibility of skiing again remains somewhere in the background.

Not because Vonn has promised a comeback. She hasn’t.

She simply never got the ending she wanted.

“I never got a final run. I never got to say goodbye. I never got, like, any sort of closure whatsoever.”

Maybe that eventually means one more race. Maybe it means getting back on skis for herself. Vonn does not know yet.

For now, she is finding her way back into the sporting world from an umpire’s chair, a tennis box and wherever else she can. The skier who spent her career chasing the perfect run is still waiting for the chance to decide how her story ends.