A perfect goodbye for Vonn
ARE, SWEDEN: Lindsey Vonn just wanted to win.
Win every time she put on skis. Win more than any other female ski racer before her.
Win no matter how much she hurt or how much the eventual cost would be to her body.
That might be why Vonn was so perplexed the other day when heir apparent Mikaela Shiffrin - who grew up wanting to be another Vonn and may one day surpass her as the greatest female skier ever - decided against trying to win five medals at the world championships in Sweden.
“I’m a racer and I want to race in every single race that I possibly can,” Vonn said. “So I don’t personally understand it.”
There’s no way Vonn could understand. She knew only one way, and that was to go as fast as she can before she could go no more. That time came Sunday, and there was no way Vonn was going home without a medal.
It was a bronze in the downhill, but it was just as good as gold. If this was Vonn’s final day as a ski racer - and every aching bone in her body said it was - she wasn’t going to leave anything in the tank. Then again, Vonn never leaves anything in the tank. “I think everyone knows my mentality at this point,” Vonn said afterward. “I always risk everything all the time. It’s the reason I’m able to win so much but also the reason I crash so much.”
The wins piled up over the years, 82 of them in all, more than any skier not named Ingemar Stenmark.
She was on this final week, with a crash and then a medal that was like a mini soap opera of her entire career. The sun came out just as she prepared to enter the gate for one last time, and Stenmark himself was waiting at the bottom of the hill with a giant spray of flowers.
“Just a perfect day for downhill,” Vonn said.
And a perfect way to say goodbye to a legend.