USA TODAY International Edition
Vonn’s legacy can’t be measured in medals
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Greatness needs no modifier.
Lindsey Vonn has been chasing Ingemar Stenmark’s record of career World Cup victories for three years and doesn’t plan to stop until she’s topped it. She wants it for herself, the competitor in her aspiring to do something that everyone said could not be done.
And she wants it for those little girls and young women out there, a visible, tangible reminder that they need not be second to anyone. “I would like to be able to say and encourage young women to be the best that they can be, that there’s no limitations just because you’re a woman,” Vonn said. “I want to be the greatest. I don’t want to be the best female. I just want to be the best.”
She spoke Saturday as part of an appearance for Bounty, which is featuring her and her dog, Lucy, in a commercial.
Stenmark’s 81 victories has long been considered one of sports’ most untouchable marks. It has stood since 1989 and, Vonn aside, no one has gotten within 20 wins of him. Think about that. Hermann Maier, Alberto Tomba, Bode Miller — all have sized up skiing’s Holy Grail, and all have come up short.
But when you are a skier as dominant as Vonn, whose physical strength and ferocious speed has changed the nature of the sport, victories pile up. From 2008 to 2013, she averaged eight victories a season. Despite the devastating knee injury that kept her out of the Sochi Olympics and cost her the better part of two seasons, she had passed Annemarie Moser-Proell, who was second with 62, by January 2015.
“After I broke that record, I got closer and closer and closer to Ingemar, and I kept hearing ‘best female skier.’ I don’t like that,” Vonn said. “As amazing as it is, as great of an accomplishment that it is, I don’t like the connotation at the front. I want to just be the greatest.”
An encounter with Picabo Street when she was 9 changed the course of her life. Street won gold in the super-G at the Nagano Olympics in 1998 and was the most notable American female skier before Vonn. “I looked up to Picabo,” Vonn said. “She’s the sole reason I wanted to be an Olympian, because of her.”
Street would become a mentor to Vonn and good friend. It was Street who encouraged Vonn to find a passion beyond skiing, something that could provide an outlet when the expectations and the pressure became too great. That became the impetus for Vonn’s foundation, which is dedicated to empowering and supporting young women.
And much as Street once was to her, Vonn has tried to be a resource and friend to the younger skiers on the tour.
Vonn is loathe to talk about her legacy or assess the impact she has made on the sport. But when she’s asked about the respect the younger skiers on tour have for her, she cannot hide her pride.
“Having their respect and competing with girls that watched me when they were growing up and are there because they watched me and have been inspired by me is so humbling,” Vonn said. “That’s something that goes far beyond the color of the medals.”
Medals and records are nice. But it’s the meaning behind them that makes them so memorable.