SNOW Alps 25-26 web - Flipbook - Page 72
It’s a complicated kind of love, this mountain romance.
“Mountains have a way of humbling you,” she says. “It’s like the
ocean, you know. It’s beautiful, it’s majestic, but you can never
tame it. No matter how hard you try, the mountain will always
win.”
Her recent recovery is proof of that humility, and of
formidable self-discipline. Her Mako partial knee replacement
– part titanium, pure tenacity – followed two years of research
and planning, well before the grueling months of rehab would
begin. “I didn’t just haphazardly jump into this. I made a plan
with my doctors,” she says. “Just because you dream about
something doesn’t mean you don’t work hard or think things
through.”
Not everyone supported the comeback. Some questioned
her long-term health risk, a few her sanity. “There have been so
many people that have said negative things about me over the
course of this comeback. And it really disappointed me because
those were my peers and people in the skiing community,” she
explains. “I thought that I would get negative feedback from
people outside of the sport. I didn’t expect people within the
sport to react that way.”
Yet even the naysayers couldn’t argue with last season’s
impressive results, a scenario she’s hell-bent on maintaining
this winter. “My focus is 100 percent on training,” she says. “If I
have time left in the day, I make it count. I’m strategic with how
I operate outside the gym and off the mountain.”
Still, even the most disciplined lives require refuge. Despite
the relentless pace of her training, Vonn appreciates moments
of stillness. Her only indulgence, she says, isn’t couture or cars
– it’s houses. “I don’t spend much. I bought my second car in
my life last year,” a Range Rover in green, her favorite color, she
explains. “I’ve been travelling my whole life, so the one thing
I want is a home to come home to. My own bed, my things, a
place for my dogs. That’s my extravagance,” she smiles. “Just
being home.” For a woman who’s spent her life chasing speed,
lingering might be the ultimate luxury.
Her comeback, then, is not only physical. It’s philosophical.
The same clarity that guides her on snow now shapes her off-
Photo by Claire Abbe
“Just because you
dream about
something doesn’t
mean you don’t
work hard or think
things through.”
72
