Better Know An Olympic Athlete: Lindsey Vonn, America’s Great Skiing Hope

Quite simply, Lindsey Vonn is the most successful American woman skier in World Cup history. She is the first to win back-to-back overall World Cup championships, in 2008 and 2009, and the first American woman to win Super G (and she also won Downhill, just for good measure). Vonn has claimed a total of 31 World Cup wins, in four different disciplines.

However, her success has never fully carried over into the Olympics. In 2002, her best finish was sixth in the combined, and at Turn in 2006, Vonn had to be airlifted off the mountain while training, but still managed to return the next day and finish eighth.