In the world of Olympic sports, there’s perhaps none more terrifyingly fast or debilitatingly dangerous as downhill skiing, hitting speeds of up to 160km/h as they carve down the side of a mountain. If that wasn’t difficult enough, American champion skier Lindsey Vonn just took on the treacherous slopes of Streif, Austria, at night and in the dark.
With 82 World Cup victories to her name, Vonn retired from the sport in 2019 in a state she described as “broken beyond repair,” but returned for one final run that proved to be one of the most challenging yet. Launching herself down what she described as “the hardest track in the world,” with sections of Streif that hit a downhill gradient of 85%, Lindsey Vonn likened the run to “jumping off the edge of the world,” as she left the starting gate.
While this is likely to be Vonn’s final downhill skiing run, she finished on a high that she ranks as the second most significant of her storied career, second only to when she won the Olympic downhill gold in 2010 at the Vancouver games. If you’ve ever hit the slopes and wondered what it might take to be a champion, you need only watch Lindsey Vonn carving up Streif.
