Lindsey Vonn Isn’t Carrying a Torch to the Olympics for Trump: ‘I Hope to Represent the People of the U.S., Not the President’

Lindsey Vonn is thrilled to compete for America in the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, but don’t expect her to bring home a victory for the President.

“Well I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the President,” Vonn, 33, told CNN’s Alpine Edge during a sitdown interview in St. Mortiz, Switzerland Thursday, where the downhill skiier is competing to qualify for her second Olympics in a World Cup event.

“I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony,” Vonn said. “I want to represent our country well. I don’t think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”

Asked if she would attend the White House visit where the U.S. team will be invited to commemorate the milestone, she took a side.

“Absolutely not,” she told CNN. “No. But I have to win to be invited. No actually I think every U.S. team member is invited so no I won’t go.”

This is the latest in a sometimes troubled relationship Donald Trump has with athletes, who have tangled with him on political issues. Vonn would not be the first athlete to sit that Presidential photo-op out, either. A number of athletes have skipped the congratulatory trip.

One of the most celebrated Alpine skiers, Vonn has won 77 World Cup victories, the most for any woman. She caught the attention of the country when she won gold in Vancouver 2010, but has only two Olympics medals, a count she’d like to increase on the slopes in February.