--- description: Find out why Lindsey Vonn was selected for TIME‘s 2026 list of the most influential people in sports. title: TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026: Lindsey Vonn image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d871dbbac371f79/6a209dec5198ff73a2fbbac9/T100SPORTS-2026-Web-Lindsey-Vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jun 09, 2026 # Lindsey Vonn by [Sean Gregory](/author/sean-gregory/) ## Sean Gregory Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent  Chris Gurney for TIME [Lindsey Vonn’s historic Olympic comeback](https://time.com/7328290/lindsey-vonn-olympics-comeback-interview/ "undefined") may not have ended as she hoped. But her courage going after it, at age 41, nine days after suffering a knee injury, won admirers the world over. Vonn, who had retired from skiing in 2019 before a partial knee-replacement surgery that would revive her storied career, entered the Feb. 8 Olympic downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, having won two World Cup races in the season and leading the global standings in her discipline. Not even hitting a fence on Jan. 30 during a race in Switzerland—and tearing the ACL in her left knee—deterred her. But 13 seconds into her Cortina run, Vonn hit a gate and [crashed down the mountain](https://time.com/7372933/lindsey-vonn-olympics-crash/ "undefined"): she shattered her left leg and broke her right ankle, and TV broadcasts picked up her screams of pain. Vonn’s leg almost required amputation, and she has undergone five surgeries since the crash. As Vonn continues to rehab, she hasn’t closed the door on an audacious possibility: another comeback. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/lindsey-vonn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/lindsey-vonn/"},"headline":"Lindsey Vonn","datePublished":"2026-06-09T12:00:46.370Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T12:00:46.522Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/lindsey-vonn/","keywords":["list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d871dbbac371f79/6a209dec5198ff73a2fbbac9/T100SPORTS-2026-Web-Lindsey-Vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sean Gregory","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/"}],"creator":"Sean Gregory","articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d871dbbac371f79/6a209dec5198ff73a2fbbac9/T100SPORTS-2026-Web-Lindsey-Vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/lindsey-vonn/","name":"Lindsey Vonn"}}]}] ```