Lindsey Vonn is recovering from a crash that nearly cost the decorated alpine skier her leg, but Vonn said this week she’s not ruling out a return to the Olympics in 2030, when she’d be 45 years old.
In an interview with CNBC Sport, the Olympic gold medalist said she would consider making one final run at the 2030 Winter Olympics — if she can be competitive.
“It’s been done,” Vonn said. “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 ways off. I would be 45 [during] the next Olympics. That might be a little bit too much, but we’ll see.”
Vonn said she’s still using crutches following the crash during her first downhill run at the Milano Cortina Olympics in February. She said she expects to be walking unassisted by the end of April.
But she still needs one more surgery later this year, she said, to take metal out of her leg from previous surgeries during the last two months — she’s now had five — and to repair her ACL, which she tore in January, nine days before her Olympic run.
USA’s Lindsey Vonn takes part in the second official training for the women’s downhill event ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Feb. 6, 2026.
Francois-Xavier Marit | AFP | Getty Images
If Vonn were to compete again in 2030, she would be one of the oldest Olympic skiers in history. Forty-six-year-old alpine skier Sarah Schleper finished 26th in the women’s Olympic Super-G in February, competing for Mexico.
Vonn last year returned from a first retirement that lasted more than five years to become the top-ranked downhill skier in the world entering the 2026 Olympics.
A winning effort at Cortina d’Ampezzo would have made Vonn the oldest female downhill gold medalist, at the age of 41. Instead, she crashed just 13 seconds into her run.
“I don’t want that to be the last run of my career,” Vonn said. “I just have to wait and see what my body does and how it responds.”
