By Mirembe Martina
Lindsey Vonn was born Lindsey Caroline Vonn on October 18, 1984 to Linda Anne and Alan Lee Kildow.
Her father, Alan Kildow won the national junior championship in the combined event in 1970 at age 17 but injured his knee at 18. He decided if he could not do it, his daughter would. Vonn was on skis at age two.
At 10, Vonn met Olympic gold medalist ski racer Picabo Street who later became her mentor in the sport. She considers Street her heroine and role model. “I began racing at seven, and by nine I was doing international events,” Vonn said. As a child, she was so good at the sport that the whole family considered relocating and her parents, brothers and sister ended up moving to Vail.
At 14, Vonn became the only female American ever to win Italy!s Trofeo Topolino contest, “Junior-Junior Worlds” and her name was entered into the Golden Book of Champions alongside girls who had gone on to win the Overall World Cup title.
She competed in her first year of top-level competition at 15. She won her first International Ski Federation (FIS) victory in 2001. In the same year, she raced in her first Slalom World Cup and in the Super-G in Val d’Isere, she scored her first World Cup points, finishing 26th.
Vonn is a World Cup alpine ski racer who has won four overall World Cup championships. She won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Similarly, she has also won six consecutive World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008-2013), four consecutive titles in Super G (2009-2012), and three consecutive titles in the combined (2010-2012).
She has won 59 World Cup races in her career through January 26, 2013 and is one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined.
Her assets were estimated to be worth over 2.5 million dollars in 2010.
Vonn married fellow Olympian, and former U.S. Ski Team athlete, Thomas Vonn on September 29, 2007, at the Silver Lake Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. After four years in marriage, they announced that they had started divorce proceedings in November 2011. Their divorce was finalized on January 9, 2013. They have no children together.
This week, Tiger Woods announced he was dating Vonn on his Facebook page alongside their pictures with captions about their love. She confirmed they were dating on her Facebook page writing, “I guess it wasn’t a well-kept secret but yes, I am dating Tiger Woods. Our relationship evolved from a friendship into something more over these past few months and it has made me very happy. I don’t plan on addressing this further as I would like to keep that part of my life between us, my family and close friends. Thank you for understanding and your continued support! xo LV”