Lindsey Vonn puts an end to comeback speculations at Sölden as Team USA gears up for the start of 2024-25 season

Former alpine skiing icon Lindsey Vonn dismissed speculations about her comeback despite being present at Sölden, Austria, the World Cup venue for the 2024-25 season. Meanwhile, she expressed her enthusiasm to watch fellow American, Mikaela Shiffrin, compete at the event.

The rumors started when she was spotted training at the Austrian resort of Soelden and shared a video of herself taking on the snowy slopes. To add more to the conjecture, a press release on Friday, October 18, indicated that the 40-year-old would be participating in the season opener of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup for the 2024-25 season scheduled for Friday, October 25.

The rumors gained traction, especially after the introduction of a new rule that allows former skiers who have won a World Cup Overall Globe, Olympic title, or World Championship medal to come out of retirement and compete at the highest level once again. In addition to Vonn, other retired skiers mentioned in the press release included Marcel Hirscher, Alexis Pinturault, and Lara Gut-Behrami.

"Among them [the competitors], Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who wants to bring Brazilian samba to the race slope, all-time ski hero Marcel Hirscher, Frenchman Alexis Pinturault as well as Lindsey Vonn and Lara Gut-Behrami," read the press release by Cision News.

However, in a recent update, Lindsey Vonn put all rumors about her comeback to rest with a tweet on Thursday where she expressed her wish to be there at the World Cup and extended her support to Mikaela Shiffrin, the US Ski Team, and Marcel Hirscher, who is actually coming out of retirement.

"Can’t wait to watch @MikaelaShiffrin and the @usskiteam this weekend! Wish I could be there in person. Hoping to watch @MarcelHirscher as well let’s go! @fisalpine," Vonn captioned the tweet.

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"She's going to break 100" - Lindsey Vonn hypes up Mikaela Shiffrin ahead of her 2024-25 season

Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games (Image via Getty)

During a conversation with Olympics.com on Monday (Oct. 21), Lindsey Vonn exuded optimism for Shiffrin to break the 100 World Cup race victories mark. She also highlighted Shiffrin's contribution to the sport as an inspiration to the upcoming generation.

"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... When I broke the record, it was at 63, and I made it to 82. So that's about 20 wins," Vonn said.

Vonn further noted that Shiffrin is headed in the right direction and emphasized that she has been an outstanding advocate for alpine skiing.