Bio
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.
By age 18, she'd won three World Cup downhill titles and looked set for an Olympic Gold. 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. Since then there's been an avalanche of triumphs: in 2009, she became the first American woman to claim back-to-back championships. 2010 brought her the World Cup title and a Laureus World Sports Award Sportswoman of the Year, and in 2011, Lindsey took the downhill, combined and Super G titles, narrowly missing out on the overall World Cup title.
In 2012, thanks to her first giant slalom win, she became the eighth woman to join the all-event winners’ circle. So it looks like the first lady of alpine skiing will reign for a few years yet.
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