MILAN ― A 41-year-old Olympian crashes on a mountain while preparing for the2026 Winter Olympicsand will compete anyway.
Sound familiar?
That's not just Lindsey Vonn, the downhill ski racer. It's also Elana Meyers Taylor, the 41-year-old bobsledder who took a spill during a practice run in early January. And Kaillie Humphries, the 40-year-old bobsledder, she knows about aches and pains, too.
Determination and struggle are part of what bind these members of Team USA.
Vonn, Taylor and Humphries have extended their Olympic careers beyond the normal threshold for world-class athletes, and now they'll get a chance to shine at the Milano Cortina Games.
"I think I'm proving to the world that a woman at 41 can do anything they set their mind to," Vonn said.
That was before she ruptured the ACL in her left knee Jan. 30 in the World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana. What's happening now helps shed light on what sets these women apart from the pack.
Opinion:Lindsey Vonn believes in herself. About time everyone else does, too
'I kept pushing'
Chronic injuries led Vonn to retire in February 2019. Her comeback did not begin in earnest until after she had partial knee replacement surgery on her left leg in April 2024.
That November, she announced she was coming out of retirement.
"I kept pushing myself further and further to see what I was capable of, and skiing and racing seemed like the logical next step," Vonn said in October at the Team USA Media Summit in New York. "And, yeah, when I decided to start racing again, I kind of had (the Olympics) as a possibility."
Lindsey Vonn reacts after crashing as she competes in the women's downhill race part of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2025-2026, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Jan. 30, 2026.Vonn is expected to be one of the biggest stars at the Milano Cortina Olympics, The 2010 Olympic downhill champion retired in 2019 because of the physical toll of her many injuries. After a partial replacement of her right knee in April 2024, she decided to make a comeback, returning to the World Cup circuit in December 2024. Look back on some of her toughest crashes and her resilient spirit." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Lindsey Vonn's most dramatic crashes and her relentless spirit
Lindsey Vonnreacts after crashing as she competes in the women's downhill race part of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2025-2026, in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Jan. 30, 2026.Vonn is expected to be one of the biggest stars at theMilano Cortina Olympics, The 2010 Olympic downhill champion retired in 2019 because of the physical toll of her many injuries. After a partial replacement of her right knee in April 2024, she decided to make a comeback, returning to the World Cup circuit in December 2024. Look back on some of her toughest crashes and her resilient spirit.
She's not doing this on her own, of course.
Vonn's coach is Aksel Lund Svindal, the retired Norwegian skier who won two Olympic golds, a silver and a bronze. Her trainer is Peter Meliessnig, who worked Anna Veith, the retired Austrian skier who won an Olympic gold, silver and bronze.
In December, Vonn told reporters she had gained 12 pounds over the summer.
"Physically I'm in possibly the best shape I've ever been in," Vonn said at a news conference in the Swiss resort, according to the Associated Press. "And my body doesn't hurt, so that's the best part of all."
About two months earlier, at the Team USA Media Summit, Vonn said her training regimen was different because of "more knowledge."
"The way we train now is so much different than when I started my career," she said. "From the training, to also diet and recovery and how we approach all of those things.
"I feel like I can recover faster because of those things. I'm training a lot smarter. I used to overtrain when I was younger. I would do three sessions a day, which now looking back seems completely insane and unnecessary. So I think the way I've trained is not age specific. It's just smart training for any athlete."
'A lot more confident'
Humphries competed for her home country of Canda at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Games. But she competed for the United States in 2022 after filing a complaint accusing her former coach in Canada of abuse and marrying an American man.
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The aging process seemed like the least of her troubles as she became the first gold medal winner in the women's monobob at the Beijing Games.
"I loved my 30s," Humphries told USA TODAY Sports. "I thought they were awesome. And 40 is no different. It's not like you all of a sudden go downhill…
"I liked having a little tighter of a face when I was 20. Don't get me wrong."
Humphries beamed.
She's shown the ability to adapt on the track, transition the two-woman sled in which she won two Olympic golds and a bronze to the monobob, where in 2022 she won another gold in the single-rider sled's Olympic debut.
"My body gets into shape really fast," Humphries said. "The muscle memory's there, so that's awesome. But I also lose it really quickly. So I don't get spend too many days not doing anything because it needs that constant feedback.
"I'm a lot more confident in myself, in my ability and who I am as a person versus when I was 20. And I know that that affects performance hands down because I know I can go out there and perform where when you're 20 you're like, please just hold on. Don't make mistakes. The things you're scared of or worried of are just so different. And so I don't worry about those things anymore."
Paying the price
Taylor, who is eight days older than Vonn, said competing as older athlete is expensive. The latest example was a crash she had during a practice run on the bobsled in Switzerland the first week of January, according to Taylor.
"I had that crash this week, so next week I'll have to fly out a physio (therapist) to come and work on me just for a week and buying a last-minute train ticket or last-minute flight to Berlin and booking hotel rooms and all this kind of stuff," Taylor, who will be competing in her fifth Olympics, told USA TODAY Sports. "Fortunately, I'm in a position within my sport that I'm able to afford it, but it's not cheap. It's not cheap to keep up this kind of level of performance. And you have to make those kind of financial sacrifices. You have to spend more on nutrition. You have to spend more on making sure you're not sitting in the back of a plane. You have to pay extra for an aisle seat and all those kind of stuff because the difference it's going to make at the end of the day."
In her 20s, Taylor recalled, she experimented with different approaches to training to try to figure out what worked best. Those days are long gone.
"Now everything's down to science, everything's down to a T," Taylor said. "We monitor nutrition and hydration. And not to say we weren't doing that stuff before, but now it's much more meticulous…
"In your 20s, you could sleep four hours and still have a great race. Now it's like, I need nine hours of sleep, and if I don't, we're going to pay some prices. So everything has to be maximized because father time isn't on your side anymore."
What science says
Kevin Murach, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas with an expertise in human performance, said scientific research helps explain why it's possible for women to thrive in their 40s. He cited the benefits of "muscle memory" and new ways to improve recovery.
He addressed Vonn's success despite a layoff of almost six years. (Deep breath as we plunge into the science.)
"…the research from my lab and others suggests that there are possible mechanisms specifically within skeletal muscle that can contribute to a rapid recovery of exercise adaptations following a layoff from consistent training," Murach wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports. "What those specific mechanisms are is a topic of debate – my research suggests it could be related to epigenetics in muscle – I think it is becoming more accepted that there is a 'muscle memory' of previous training that sensitizes the muscle to retraining."
With regard to Humphries and Taylor, Maruch suggested that emphasis on recovery has contributed to their longevity in elite competition.
"I speculate that training loads have been adjusted to accommodate for longer recovery time which can be a consequence of the aging process," he said. "Different recovery tactics as well as an emphasis on quality sleep, in addition to monitoring various physiological metrics for quantifying recovery using new technologies and leveraging data to guide training decisions, seems to have increased in popularity in recent years. I suspect it is a variety of factors that are allowing for longer careers at the highest level of sport."
Ultimately, Murach put things in simpler language.
"In any case," he said, "the success of these women into their 40s gives the rest of us hope."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:How Lindsey Vonn, other women extend Olympic careers into 40s
