Lindsay Vonn, 41, said she missed the phone-free focus of being an athlete after retirement.
On Wednesday’s episode of the “Pretty Tough” podcast, Vonn told host Maria Sharapova that she was still thinking about being active on her way home after her Olympic injury.
“I was coming up the hill to my house, and I thought, ‘God, I would love to do a hill sprint right now,'” Vonn said. “Then I thought to myself, ‘What is wrong with me? Why do I want to do that right now, even in excruciating pain?'”
The alpine skier said sports gave her the chance to be “singularly focused,” something she found “really therapeutic.”
“The work ethic, the pain, grinding it out in the gym was always something that I actually enjoyed because I felt like I got so much out of it,” Vonn said.
“I was so present and focused. You’re not on your phone. You’re not thinking about emails,” she continued.
In retirement, she found it harder to feel fully present and missed the distraction-free focus that came with a structured training routine.
“There’s no time really, unless you carve out time in the gym or like you have a specific amount of time where you’re meditating, where you actually are present,” Vonn said. “We’re being pulled in so many different directions.”
But for her and other elite athletes, sports can create a rare “bubble” where they can shut out the rest of the world, Vonn said.
Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist, initially announced her retirement from the sport in 2019. Five years later, months after undergoing a knee replacement surgery, Vonn told The New York Times she was rejoining the US ski team.
In 2026, Vonn competed in her fifth Olympics at the Milan Cortina Games, where she crashed during the women’s downhill competition. She was airlifted from the course and later said she had sustained a complex tibia fracture.
During the podcast, Vonn said she was “pretty far away from knowing” the future of her competitive skiing career, but hoped to make a decision “next spring” after additional surgery and a “mental, physical wellness check.”
Other athletes have also spoken about finding it hard to replace the intensity of competition in retirement.
In 2024, Tom Brady said nothing could match the thrill of taking the field with his teammates. Former NHL player Brooks Laich similarly told Business Insider in July that it took him years to find a new sense of purpose after retiring from hockey.
