Podium finish makes Lindsey Vonn confident about Milano Cortina 2026 Games

At age 40, the American ski icon thundered back onto the podium with her 138th podium finish, demonstrating that she still has the passion to race with the world’s elite. It wasn’t merely a victory over the clock; it was a declaration that her eyes were fixed on the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games.

Lindsey Vonn’s return season has been a rollercoaster ride. Following her 2019 retirement and a knee replacement in 2024, she returned this winter, confronting crashes, naysayers, and the burden of her own legend. But then came that Sun Valley super-G run, in which she was behind only Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami. “This season couldn’t have ended any better,” Vonn said to Olympics.com, smiling after her first podium in 2,565-plus days. At 40, she is the oldest woman to capture a World Cup Alpine skiing podium, and she shows no signs of slowing down.

“I still have what it takes,” she declared, her confidence building as she looked towards Cortina, where she has accumulated a record 12 World Cup victories. The pressure was on in Sun Valley, and Vonn thrived. “I have had very few opportunities in my life to race a speed event in the United States,” she noted, “and I think that also gives me confidence going to Cortina and knowing that I can perform when the pressure is high.” That experience—paired with her unmatched history on the Olympia delle Tofane slope—has her feeling “really optimistic” about qualifying for her fifth Olympics. “I will definitely be the oldest, but also the most experienced on that track,” she added.