Lindsey Vonn likely to push back retirement following winning start to Olympic season at age 41

They said she “should see a psychologist,” had “gone completely mad” and hadn’t “recognized the meaning and purpose of her other life” away from skiing.

Well, Lindsey Vonn’s return to downhill racing on her titanium knee doesn’t seem so crazy now.

Not after she dominated the opening speed weekend of the Olympic season, won the first downhill by a huge margin and gained more points than any other skier over three days of World Cup racing.

At age 41.

“All the people that didn’t believe in me, I have to thank them because it really gives me a lot of motivation,” Vonn said.

“I’m surprised that people haven’t figured that out by now. That every time you talk bad about me it just makes me stronger and better and more motivated. So I would love for people to keep coming at me. It would be great. Motivate me even more.”

A year ago, when Vonn was preparing to race again after nearly six years of retirement, two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister suggested the American “should see a psychologist,” adding on Austrian TV, “Does she want to kill herself?”

Austrian downhill great Franz Klammer said “she’s gone completely mad” and four-time overall World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen added that Vonn “hasn’t recognized the meaning and purpose of her other life in recent years.”

After all, the risks are high in a sport where skiers hurl themselves down icy mountains at speeds of 130 kph (80 mph) with little protection besides a helmet, a back protector and a safety air bag system under their suits.

But Vonn looked more composed and stable than skiers half her age on the Corviglia course in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

When Vonn won Friday’s downhill by 0.98 seconds — an eternity in a sport often decided by mere hundredths — she was emboldened enough to shape her hands in a sleeping gesture in the style of NBA star Stephen Curry’s “Night, night” gesture.

In other words, she felt she had just put the rest of the field to rest when she became the oldest winner in World Cup history — among men and women.

The performance and gesture got some attention in the NBA.

“40+ is the new 20. Well, until you wake up the next day!” 40-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said on Instagram.

Fellow downhiller Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion, said on Friday that Vonn “took us all to school and left us with a pacifier (baby's dummy) in our mouths.”

The next day, Goggia backed up her comments and put a pacifier in her mouth while standing next to Vonn.

Vonn also finished second in another downhill on Saturday despite a big mistake midway down, then placed fourth in a super-G on Sunday. In all, she earned a weekend-best 230 World Cup points — 60 more than Goggia and 85 more than Emma Aicher, the 22-year-old German who won Saturday’s race..

She “raised the bar for every athlete in downhill and super-G,” Goggia said.

Vonn’s performance has her reconsidering her plans.

Instead of going back into retirement immediately after the Milan Cortina Winter Games in February, she’ll likely ski on through the end of the World Cup season in March.

“I think I might need to change my approach,” she said.

Vonn’s head coach Chris Knight said: “We can start planning for the whole season.”

Having figured out her equipment and with improved fitness from last season — she added 12 pounds (5.5 kilograms) of muscle to her frame — Knight believes Vonn can perform at this level every weekend.

“It’s just about managing the load, the training and the recovery time,” Knight told The Associated Press. “It’s almost recovery is more important right now because she’s in a really good place with the skiing.”

Women’s Alpine skiing at the Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where Vonn holds the record with 12 World Cup wins.

Besides downhill and super-G on her Olympic program, Vonn also plans to enter the new team combined — which features two-person teams with one competitor racing a downhill run and another performing a slalom run.

Vonn campaigned to pair with slalom standout Mikaela Shiffrin at last year’s world championships but her performances then didn’t merit that chance. Shiffrin won gold with Breezy Johnson instead.

But the way this season has started for Vonn — and with Shiffrin having won all three slaloms — could result in a skiing “Dream Team” in Cortina.

“If they do it like they did last year at the world champs, you take the fastest downhiller and the fastest slalom skier and move down from there,” Knight said.

Vonn also has former Olympic downhill champion Aksel Lund Svindal on her coaching staff this season — and it was the Norwegian offering the final words of advice before she raced over the weekend.

“He’s been at the start a million times and his calm energy is really helpful to me because sometimes I’m really intense,” Vonn said. “He’s just always so stable and that gives me peace of mind.”

Andrew Dampf is at https://x.com/AndrewDampf

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Lindsey Vonn celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Friday Dec.12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luciano Bisi)

United States' Lindsey Vonn listens to Aksel Lund Svindal ahead of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Friday Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

United States' Lindsey Vonn speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G event, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Sunday Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Lindsey Vonn of the United States reacts after completing an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Saturday Dec. 13, 2025 (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

United States' Lindsey Vonn gets emotional as she celebrates winning an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Friday Dec. 12, 2025. (Claudio Thoma/Keystone via AP)

DENVER (AP) — Investigators in Colorado confirmed Friday that the 2005 shooting death of journalist Hunter S. Thompson was a suicide, following a review requested by local authorities at the behest of his widow.

The probe, announced in September, was opened after Anita Thompson contacted the sheriff for the Aspen area, Michael Buglione, with “new concerns and potential information regarding the investigation” into Thompson's death, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said.

The bureau did not explain what that information was, but it noted that the review found that his body “was not moved or ‘staged’ after death.”

CBI said interviews with family members and the original investigators confirmed that Thompson suffered from significant depression and chronic pain at the time of his death. Pitkin County coroner Dr. Steven Ayers noted that he was in physical and mental decline and idolized author Ernest Hemingway, who also died by suicide, it said.

“All speculative theories could not be substantiated,” CBI said.

In a statement included in the announcement, Anita Thompson thanked the bureau for its “kind and thorough work."

“This allows all of us who loved Hunter to move forward with a clean conscience,” she said.

CBI spokesperson Rob Low declined to comment on what concerns were behind the review, and Buglione did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking more information.

Thompson, who popularized a first-person form of gonzo journalism in articles and books such as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” died in February 2005 at his Aspen-area home, Owl Farm in Woody Creek. He was 67.

His remains were famously cremated and fired from a cannon at his request during a private ceremony in Colorado. Among the celebrities who attended was actor Johnny Depp, who played the lead role in the 1998 film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing.”

Thompson home was examined as part of the investigation because most of the physical evidence and photographs were destroyed under protocols for cases that are not considered criminal, CBI said.

As part of the review, investigators tracked the path of the bullet that killed Thompson with the help of a fragment that was still lodged in an appliance in the home, Low said.

Buglione said in a statement that he believes the original investigation was conducted properly but investigators recognized the importance of an independent review.

“CBI’s conclusions reaffirm the original findings and, we hope, provide reassurance and clarity,” he said.

FILE - Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, left, and his wife, Anita Thompson, at the Pitkin County Court House in Aspen, Colo., on April 23, 2003, during their civil wedding ceremony. (AP Photo/Louisa Davidson, File)