The mood in Lindsey Vonn\u2019s camp leading up to the Milan Cortina Olympics has taken a turn. Where before there was only excitement, now there are nerves.<\/b>
\nThe mood in Lindsey Vonn\u2019s camp leading up to the Milan Cortina Olympics has taken a turn. Where before there was only excitement, now there are nerves.
\u201cThings changed a little bit this week,\u201d Martina Sailer, the daughter of Vonn\u2019s childhood coach and mentor Erich Sailer and a longtime family friend, said with a nervous chuckle during a phone interview this week with The Post.
It\u2019s only natural after the 41-year-old, who is in the middle of an Olympic comeback that has captivated the world, completely ruptured her ACL in her left knee during her final downhill tune-up on Jan. 30 and had to be airlifted off the course in Crans-Montana. The three-time Olympic medalist\u2019s status for the Games was immediately thrown into question.
Yet, Vonn didn\u2019t let up and successfully completed her first training run Friday with a time of 1:40.33 \u2014 1.39 seconds off the lead in 11th place.
\u201cImagine taking a car down a mountain but with no road and at 80 miles per hour. You couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Tony Olin, close family friend and Vonn\u2019s former private coach at Buck Hill in Minnesota, told The Post this week over the phone. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing with your body, and she knows that.\u201d
After the crash, Sailer messaged the star alpine skier, whom she has known since Vonn\u2019s birth, writing she was thinking of her. Vonn has her \u201chead down,\u201d Sailer said, focusing solely on her goal of winning as Sunday\u2019s women\u2019s downhill final inches closer.
\u201cShe\u2019s been laser-focused on the goal for a while now,\u201d said Sailer, who is traveling to Milan with her husband, two daughters, and Vonn\u2019s aunt. \u201cNumber 1, I want her to do well. I want her to be safe. I care for her as a human being. But mostly, of course I want her to reach her goals and do her best. We\u2019re super-excited to cheer her on in whatever capacity that is. We\u2019re hoping for the best.\u201d
It came as no surprise to both Sailer and Olin that Vonn has decided to push forward. For one, she has overcome worse in her career.
In the 2019 World Championships in \u00c5re, Sweden, Vonn endured a major crash during the Super-G. Erich Sailer, who died in August 2025 and Olin called him Vonn\u2019s \u201csoul mentor,\u201d advised his protege that it\u2019s \u201conly 90 seconds of your life. You can do anything for 90 seconds.\u201d
Five days later, those 90 seconds won Vonn a bronze medal, skiing on what she later learned was several knee injuries.
\u201cShe pieced herself back together. There\u2019s so much to overcome, but she\u2019s willing to muster that courage,\u201d Olin said.
That warrior-like mentality and work ethic is something Vonn has always harnessed.
Vonn\u2019s mother, Lindy Anne Lund, who passed away in 2022 after a battle with ALS, suffered a stroke after the Olympian was born. She went on to have four more children, and Vonn was often the helper, Olin explained.
Vonn arrived at Buck Hill\u2019s racing program at 6 years old after Alan Kildow, Vonn\u2019s father and Erich Sailer\u2019s first racing protege, prodded Olin into coaching her. From age 7 to 11, Vonn trained at 7 a.m. before school three times a week with the coach before the family moved to Vail, Colorado.
By 9 years old, Vonn had traveled to Europe without her family to train with the older Buck Hill racers for three weeks, showing discipline and an \u201cincredible level of maturity,\u201d Sailer said. When Vonn came home, the program quickly moved to train at Mount Hood in Oregon for two more weeks.
\u201c[There was] some serious resilience there,\u201d said Olin, who was also coached by both Erich Sailer and Kildow. \u201cSo I think it was just kinda a matter of fact. \u2018So this is what I do.\u2019 It was just part of her, and she just loved doing it.\u201d
Outside of her work as an entrepreneur, Vonn poured her whole life into skiing, and it largely has made her who she is going into her fifth Olympics. It made sense to those close to her that she came out of retirement for another shot at glory.
At the news of her return in November 2024, Sailer\u2019s daughters, Greta and Lulu, who are also young ski racers, ran outside their home and screamed at the top of their lungs in excitement.
\u201cShe\u2019s always had the top doctors, top physical therapists, top trainers,\u201d Sailer said. \u201cThey and she know precisely what her body can handle. When she was coming back, I felt really confident that she knew she would be strong.
\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t do it just to do it. She wanted to do it and be the best.\u201d
Days following her recent crash, Vonn posted a photo of Erich Sailer\u2019s gravesite in Telfs, Austria \u2014 where she made a pit stop before heading to Cortina \u2014 on her Instagram story. She wrote, \u201cI know exactly what he would say. \u2026 Just wish he was here to say it \u2026\u201d
Martina Sailer is almost certain Vonn was reminding herself of the 90 second racing motto.
\u201cI think she really took that to heart, and so, you know, here we are again,\u201d Sailer said.<\/p>\n