Lindsey Vonn admitted that her reaction on social media after learning she wasn’t paired with Mikaela Shiffrin for the team combined race at the skiing world championships wasn’t helpful. The 40-year-old Vonn had been hoping to race alongside Shiffrin in a “dream team” for the new event, which will also debut at the Olympics next year.
When Vonn saw that Shiffrin was racing with Breezy Johnson, the recent downhill world champion, she expressed her disappointment on X (formerly Twitter).
“Why am I not surprised?” Vonn posted on Monday with a shrug emoji, though she later deleted it and shared another message.
On Tuesday, Vonn reflected on her actions, saying, “Maybe I didn’t help myself or the team by having my Twitter fingers out. But at the same time, I’m a human being and I was disappointed in the communication. And I let my feelings be known. I’m a human. I have feelings. So shoot me.”
The new combined event involves one skier competing in a downhill race and another in a slalom. The times from both racers are then combined to determine the overall result.
On Tuesday, Johnson and Shiffrin took home the gold, while Vonn and her partner AJ Hurt finished 16th after a rough downhill run left their team in 21st place after the morning leg.
Vonn was the only one of the eight U.S. skiers who didn’t participate in the podium celebration for Johnson and Shiffrin, as she rushed to catch a flight for a ski school event in Switzerland later that day. However, she still congratulated the gold medalists on X, saying, “What a team!!!”
Lauren Macuga, another American, led the downhill portion, with Johnson finishing fourth. In the downhill race, Vonn placed just above Andorra’s Cande Moreno in a field of 26, 2.51 seconds behind Macuga.
Vonn shared that she struggled during the run, saying, “I was in my tuck pretty much the whole way down and just not accelerating anywhere.” She attributed the issue to her equipment, specifically her boots, and noted that making adjustments mid-race during the world championships was challenging. Vonn, who returned this season after almost six years of retirement, acknowledged there’s still work to do.
The U.S. team’s coaching staff selected the combined pairings based on the athletes’ best season results in both downhill and slalom.
Vonn expressed that she had no issue with the selection process itself, agreeing that pairing Breezy Johnson with Mikaela Shiffrin was the right decision. “They’re the fastest two skiers,” Vonn said. However, she was disappointed by the lack of communication, explaining that she learned about the pairing through Instagram rather than directly from the team. “It’s just a simple phone call or text message,” Vonn added, calling the lack of communication unprofessional.
Vonn mentioned she had reached out to Shiffrin, and the two discussed the idea of racing together, but she later learned that Shiffrin had decided not to compete in the combined event. Vonn was only informed of Shiffrin’s final decision via Instagram.
U.S. speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser explained that while it would have been exciting to see the two stars race together, other skiers were performing stronger at the moment. He emphasized the need to pair the fastest athletes, which is why Johnson, the fastest in downhill, was chosen to race alongside Shiffrin.