Red Bull.com

Don't let Lindsey Vonn's golden locks and good looks fool you, the poster girl of Alpine skiing is as ruthless, brilliant and successful as they come in the super tough, competitive world of alpine racing.

Hailing from St Paul, Minnesota, USA, Lindsey set her sights on becoming a world-class skier after meeting her childhood hero Picabo Street at the age of nine.

She trains hard all year – pretty much six hours a day, six days a week – and is one of the most persistent skiers on the slopes.

Lindsey's determination has paid off handsomely. By age 18, she'd won three World Cup downhill titles and it looked like the gold medal was hers for the taking at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. But disaster struck when she crashed in practice and was forced to bow out.

That setback only strengthened Lindsey's resolve. The next year she won silver in downhill and Super G at the World Championships, and in 2008 she won both the overall and downhill World Cup titles. Completing her comeback in style she became the first American woman to win Olympic downhill gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games – which she says is her proudest victory. She took the bronze in the Super G, too.

Since then there's been an avalanche of triumphs: in 2009, she defended her 2008 World Cup titles and became the first American woman to claim back-to-back championships. She stamped her dominance of World Cup skiing by adding the Super G crown. And to crown a perfect season she won downhill and Super G golds at the World Championships.

In 2010, Lindsey won another overall World Cup title as well as the Super G, downhill and combined disciplines titles.

In 2011, Lindsey took the downhill, combined and Super G titles, only narrowly missing out on the overall World Cup title. It went down to the wire after Lindsey clawed back her good friend Maria Reisch's massive lead.

But poor weather conditions at the final event in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, meant Maria took the title. Lindsey claimed another silver in the downhill at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

As a measure of Lindsey’s impact on international sport, she was named Laureus World Sports Awards Sportswoman of the Year 2010, as well as the 2010 and 2011 ESPY awards.

All of this, however, pales into insignificance compared to the time she bagged a part in her favourite TV show, Law & Order.

An Olympian, a world champion, sure, but she’s also a down-to-earth home-loving girl:

"It is very hard to balance skiiing with family life, but my two sisters try to find time to accompany me as often as possible, my brother will come to the World Cup finals in March. Now they are older it is easier for them to travel and support me."

With their support propelling her to further wins, Lindsey is already snowballing her way to 2012 World Cup golds. She's built a substantial lead in the overall standings thanks to five victories in her opening nine races. It looks like the first lady of alpine skiing will reign for a few years yet.