Lindsey Vonn Insists 2026 Olympics Was ‘Not a Issue’ in Snowboarding Return

Lindsey Vonn is sharing her causes for popping out of retirement — and it apparently has nothing to do with the upcoming Winter Video games. 

Throughout an interview on As we speak on Tuesday, Dec. 10, the snowboarding champion, 40, mentioned the upcoming 2026 Olympics was “not an element” in her resolution to return to the game as she mirrored on getting again on the slopes over the weekend within the FIS Fall Pageant competitors in Colorado.

“It’s positively not a think about what I’m doing now,” Vonn mentioned of the Olympics, which is able to happen in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. 

“I believe everybody is aware of how a lot I like Cortina,” she continued, mentioning her recording-breaking World Cup wins there. “Let’s see what occurs however I don’t need to put any expectations on it.”

“Nobody’s completed this earlier than with a knee substitute [and] I’m barely older than I used to be earlier than,” the skilled alpine skier mentioned on the present. “So I don’t know… but when I might, that might be wonderful.”

After all, Vonn has had her share of Olympic wins, with three gold medals to her identify. Exterior of the Video games, she’s received 82 World Cup races.

In 2018, Vonn introduced her retirement from snowboarding, writing on Instagram that she had “accepted” that she might now not take part within the sport attributable to a torn lateral collateral ligament (LCL). She wrote in regards to the resolution in a memoir titled Rise: My Story, launched in 2022.

She’d endure a number of knee surgical procedures together with a full substitute in April. The athlete documented her journey again to energy in a sequence of posts on her Instagram.

To remain lively, Vonn took on new sports activities, together with wake browsing. However in November, Vonn shocked the sports activities world in an interview with The New York Occasions when she introduced she was coming again to snowboarding.

Seems, Vonn shocked herself too, telling As we speak that she “by no means thought it was going to occur” and that she’s “simply as stunned as anyone else.”

“I at all times thought [my skiing career] was over,” Vonn mentioned. “I imply, after all, if I had the chance to maintain snowboarding I might have, however my accidents at all times held me again.”

Her return up to now “has been unimaginable,” together with that middle-of-the-pack placement over the weekend. “I’m actually having fun with this journey,” Vonn mentioned. “I truthfully don’t understand how far I can take it,”

As for why she really determined to ski once more, the skier instructed Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin that her angle towards the game modified after she “felt so good” popping out of surgical procedure.

“I had no extra ache and all of the issues that had been bothering me for thus a few years had been immediately gone and I assumed, ‘If I really feel this good taking part in tennis and all these different issues, what about snowboarding?’ ” Vonn defined.

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The gold medalist is now calling her subsequent new chapter in snowboarding “an journey.”

“I don’t know the place that is going to steer, however I’m so completely happy to not be in a ache anymore and do to the factor I like most, which is snowboarding,” she shared. 

Vonn’s first main event since returning might be on the World Cup circuit this winter season.

As we speak airs weekdays (starting at 7 a.m. ET) on NBC.