U.S. Women’s soccer legend Abby Wambach’s debut podcast for ESPN was a goodie. Alpine icon Lindsey Vonn appeared on the show and dropped serious knowledge. The decorated racer wants to ski three more years, one season past the 2018 Olympic Games. Why?
“The goal is definitely to make it to the next Olympics in South Korea in 2018, so that’s two more seasons, but I’m really hoping for three seasons and I’ll tell you why,” said Vonn, who is one of the most accomplished ski racers in history. “It’s because in my final season, I would like to race against the men in one race.”
Vonn was chasing a fifth overall World Cup title last year when she had a nasty crash in Andorra that took her out of the race. Her 16 titles in individual disciplines is the most for any alpine athlete, male or female. She’s also in pursuit of the all-time female wins record of 86.
“We’ve started the process of trying to figure out how [racing against men] can be accomplished,” Vonn continued in the interview. “It’s going to be definitely a hard thing to get done with all the ski federations and everything involved, but that’s my goal. … I’m hoping by like three years I could probably figure out how to accomplish that, fingers crossed.”
Other women have lobbied with the governing bodies of their respective sports to play with men. Golfer Michelle Wie played in a men’s tournaments with limited success. But Wie wasn’t nearly as experienced or as accomplished as Vonn who will be 32 in October.
