Lindsey Vonn previously revealed that she decided against swapping ski racing for a career in Formula One. The 41-year-old, who is one of the most recognisable names in skiing, suffered a horrific crash in the women’s downhill final on Sunday.

Vonn retired from the sport in 2019 but returned to action in late 2024 and was one of the pre-tournament favourites to claim a medal at the Milan Cortina Games. She ruptured her ACL shortly before competing at her fifth Winter Olympics, yet remarkably chose to continue representing Team USA. However, the former Olympic champion was airlifted off the course after crashing during the final. It later emerged that the skiing star had fractured her leg but was in a stable condition. In 2020, during her retirement from skiing, Vonn revealed that she had turned down an opportunity to pursue a career in motorsport.

The 2010 gold medalist has had a sponsorship deal with Red Bull for two decades and revealed that she was given the chance to prove herself in a new sport. “I was thinking about switching and going to Formula One and trying to be a driver, but I couldn’t because they wanted me to commit to three years and they were like: ‘You can’t get pregnant and you can’t do anything,” she said on In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

“And I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I really want to do that.’ That was definitely going to be something that would be very exciting for the person I am.”

Highlighting the difference between skiing and F1, she added: “They were like, ‘If you don’t make it onto Formula One, you could always do NASCAR.’ The amount of money Formula One has is just…I think probably the salary of one racer is the total amount of money that ski racing has for their annual budget as a sport!”

Vonn shared her experience of driving around an F1 track and quickly identified one aspect she needed to improve. The skier also admitted to pushing another car to its limits when sitting alongside a fellow Olympian.

“I drove in Spielberg in Austria on the Formula One track,” Vonn said. “On the autobahn, we went 130mph. I was with [three-time alpine skiing Olympic champion] Maria Hofl-Reisch, driving her Audi R8. 

“There’s a good stretch south of Munich where there’s no speed limit and she was like ‘Come on, Lindsey, you’re not going very fast.’ Of course, I then had to show her what was up!

“But on the track, it was definitely higher than that. I had a tendency to go a little too fast on the corners and I would spin out.”