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Lindsey Vonn expressed her thoughts on forming a team with fellow American skier Mikaela Shiffrin for the newly introduced combined event at the upcoming World Championships. With a combined tally of 181 wins, the two are the most decorated female skiers in World Cup history.
Vonn came out of retirement last year after a successful partial knee replacement surgery and has featured in multiple World Cup races. She registered a best finish of fourth in Super-G earlier this month in St. Anton, Austria, and has now set her sights on winning medals at next month's World Championships in Saalbach, Austria.
In an interview with dpa, the 40-year-old, asked whether she would like to form a team with Shiffrin for the new combined event at the World Championships, replied:
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"I would love to race with Mikaela, that would be amazing and I think it would be probably one of the coolest things ever to have both of us competing together on the same team."
The three-time Olympic medalist added that she had even informed her coaches about the decision to form a team with Shiffrin.
"It's 181 World Cup wins between the two of us," Lindsey Vonn added: "I've told my coaches that I want to."
While Shiffrin has remained sidelined from the sport for the last two months after suffering a crash in Killington, the winningest skier of all time has announced plans to compete at the World Championships, and Vonn is hopeful of her readiness to form the team.
"Mikaela hasn't been back skiing yet, at least not with the team, so we have to see how she feels, but if she's racing in the world championships then she must be good enough to race in the team event, I would imagine," Vonn said.
Vonn retired in 2019 with 82 World Cup victories, the most by any female skier then. Shiffrin overtook her four years later, and with 99 wins, she's now the most decorated among both male and female skiers.
"The fact that Mikaela Shiffrin is going to break 100 wins is crazy" - Lindsey Vonn
Speaking in an interview with Olympics.com in October, Lindsey Vonn showered high praise on Mikaela Shiffrin on approaching the 100 World Cup victories.
"The fact that she didn’t just break the record but now she's going to break 100 is crazy. And I think if you look at it, it's the evolution of sports.
The 40-year-old highlighted that both of them extended the record of most wins by adding nearly 20 more each, and if the trend continues, the sport is going in a great direction.
"When I broke the record, it was at 63, and I made it to 82. So that's about 20 wins. And then she broke the record, so 20 wins more than that is 100. So it kind of seems like it's going in a great direction. And, you know, we need that, ski racing needs that and she's been an amazing advocate for the sport," Lindsey Vonn added
Vonn hasn'r registered a podium finish since returning to action, and except for a fourth-place finish in Austria, she has largely struggled. While she's disappointed, it has left the Olympic champion hungry, and she aims to satisfy it with medals at the World Championships, which start on February 4.
