Lindsey Caroline Vonn (born October 18, 1984 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She has won three consecutive overall World Cup and downhill championships in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Vonn is the first American woman and third woman ever to accomplish this. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. Vonn also won three consecutive World Cup season titles in Super G (the first American woman to do so), and two consecutive titles in the combined.
Vonn's nicknames are "Kildon", "Don Don" and "The Don". Her hobbies include cycling, tennis, reading, and watching NBC's Law & Order; Vonn appeared as a guest star in the final series episode ("Rubber Room") on Law & Order on May 24, 2010. She married fellow 2002 Olympian and former U.S. Ski Team athlete Thomas Vonn on September 29, 2007, at the Silver Lake Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah.
Vonn appeared in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition that featured Winter Olympians in 2010. Vonn also on Maxim's Hot 100 list.
In 1999, Vonn became the first American female to win at Italy's Trofeo Topolino (for skiers of ages 11–14) where she was victorious in slalom. After climbing through the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, she made her World Cup debut at age 16 on November 18, 2000 in Park City, Utah.
In her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics at age 17, Vonn raced in both slalom and combined in Salt Lake City, with her best result coming with sixth in combined. On March 4, 2003, she earned a silver medal in downhill in the Junior World Championship at Puy Saint-Vincent, France.
Vonn won her first "big race" medals with silver in both downhill and Super-G at the 2007 World Championships in Are, Sweden.
Vonn received the Laureus World Sports Awards Sportswoman of the Year for 2010. She was also honored again as the USOC's sportswoman of the year for 2010.
Since March 2011, she has 41 World Cup wins in four disciplines - downhill, Super G, slalom, and super combined. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009, three silver medals in 2007 & 2011 and three overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in ski racing history.
