Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn thinks the downhill run for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics might suit her style as she targets the return of the blue riband title she won in Vancouver five years ago.
She was presented as an ambassador of South Koreas first Winter Olympics on Wednesday (6 May) in Seoul and she said she is focused on her on-piste ambitions.
I think my goals for the next Olympics are to try to win a gold medal. In the last Olympics I competed in Vancouver, I won the downhill and was third in Super-G. So I hope to improve upon those results, if not match them. And the site looks very challenging. It looks like a good downhill, is very steep and has a lot of jumps, which I really like. So I am looking forward to see it with the snow on and actually be able to run the course, but so far it looks very good, Vonn told reporters.
Vonn, also a former Super-G world champion, was robbed of her chance to defend her Olympic downhill title at the 2014 Sochi Games when she was forced to have two operations on her right knee.
She stormed back last season, however, to confirm her status as one of the greatest alpine skiiers of all time.
The downhill and Super-G season titles she secured gave her 19 in total, matching the record held by Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who is the only skier to have won more World Cup races (86) than Vonns 67. Vonn said she was delighted to have been asked to become an ambassador for the Pyeongchang Games.
My goal, for almost my entire career, has been to promote ski racing not just in America, but across the world. I think its an amazing sport. I am happy to be an ambassador for the next Olympics and I will do my best to honour the Olympics spirit and to hopefully encourage kids to participate in sports, especially in Asia and Korea and I am looking forward to an amazing Olympics, Vonn added.
The 30-year-old American brushed aside questions about this weeks split with golfer Tiger Woods.
I dont really want to talk about my personal life and I think I said everything in my Facebook post and we will just leave it at that, Vonn added.
Vonn announced the end of her three-year relationship with Woods on Sunday (3 May). She used her Facebook page to announce the split before Woods confirmed it on his website.
Woods, a four-times Masters tournament champion, and Vonn, a four-time World Cup ski champion and Olympic gold medallist, announced in 2013 that they were a couple and were routinely seen as spectators at each others sporting events.
