Alpine skiing: Lindsey Vonn announces career end

US ski racer Lindsey Vonn (33) has committed herself to a career end after the 2018/19 season. “This will be my last season. I will definitely stop after this year,” Vonn said on Thursday at a gig in New York. This even applies in the event that she does not break Ingemar Stenmark’s victory record.

“I have physically arrived at a point where it no longer makes sense,” Vonn said in justification. At the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February, she said that she would continue driving until she broke the legendary Sweden’s record, “no matter how much it hurts”.

Vonn has 82 World Cup victories on her account, on Stenmark’s record she is missing four. “If I make it, a dream would come true,” said the native of Tyrol on Thursday according to NBC Sports, looking ahead to the coming season. “If not, I would have had an incredibly successful career. I’m still the most successful female ski racer and I think that’s something to be really proud of.”

She had considered running until 2020, but her long history of injury had relieved her of this decision. “I would also like to be active when I’m older, so I have to look to the future and not just focus on what’s in front of me right now,” Vonn explained.

The American ski queen had already spoken publicly at the beginning of September about a career end after the current season. She answered a fan question on Instagram with, “This is the last season of my career.” However, she immediately put this statement into perspective. When asked whether this would also apply if she did not achieve Stenmark’s victory record, she said: “Difficult question. I don’t know the answer.”

Vonn had started her skiing career at the age of seven. She won her first Olympic medal in 2010 in Vancouver. In Pyeongchang she achieved bronze in downhill and became the oldest female skier to make it to the podium at the Olympic Winter Games. She had to miss the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi because of a knee injury, the consequences of which are still occupying her today.