{"id":468647,"date":"2025-12-24T09:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468647\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T09:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:53:12","slug":"fiba-hall-of-fame-taps-wnba-icon-sue-bird-for-class-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468647\/","title":{"rendered":"FIBA Hall of Fame Taps WNBA Icon Sue Bird for Class of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

US skiing icon Lindsey Vonn is officially back, clinching her spot on Team USA’s 2026 Winter Olympics roster this week behind stellar recent performances on the sport’s World Cup tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old made headlines two weekends ago when she became the oldest Alpine Ski World Cup winner<\/a> since the circuit’s 1967 inception, taking first in the downhill race in St. Moritz, Switzerland on December 12th \u2014 her 83rd World Cup victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Every single thing that I could do to be faster, I did,” said Vonn after winning the downhill event. “And now, now this is what happens. You get the reward.”<\/p>\n

Vonn is continuing to rack up the rewards, claiming podium finishes in four of the five total races she’s competed in so far this season, earning another second-place downhill finish in St. Moritz before taking third in both downhill and the Super G in Val-d’Is\u00e8re, France, last weekend.<\/p>\n

As for her fifth World Cup race, Vonn clocked in at a still-impressive fourth.<\/p>\n

“Four podiums in five races, I couldn’t really be any happier,” the Olympic gold medalist said in response.<\/p>\n

Those finishes have the US ski legend sitting at No. 1 in the World Cup downhill standings and No. 3 in the Super-G \u2014\u00a0with her downhill ranking putting her far enough ahead to guarantee Vonn one of the four Team USA roster spots at the 2026 Olympics.<\/p>\n

“Lindsey qualifying for the 2026 Olympic team is a testament to her resilience and dedication,” said US Ski & Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, confirming Vonn’s Team USA qualification in a Tuesday statement. “She’s proven once again that elite performance isn’t just about past success, it’s about rising to the moment, race after race.”<\/p>\n

\"USALindsey Vonn won her 83rd World Cup title \u2014\u00a0and first since March 2018 \u2014 this month. (Alain Grosclaude\/Agence Zoom\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Success spurs Vonn to extend final competitive season <\/p>\n

Returning to competitive skiing in November 2024 following her retirement in February 2019, Vonn spent part of her five-year hiatus undergoing and recovering from a titanium knee replacement that ultimately returned her to the slopes.<\/p>\n

Though Vonn previously planned to retire immediately<\/a> after February’s Winter Games in Cortina, Italy, she’s now setting her sights on completing the World Cup circuit in March \u2014\u00a0though that will officially be the end of the road for the US icon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’m rolling the dice enough as it is, being 41 and putting myself through this,” Vonn told The Athletic<\/a>. “So this is a one-season, final season.”<\/p>\n

That said, she’ll look to add to her trio of Olympic medals before hanging up her competitive skis.<\/p>\n

“For Cortina, things are looking pretty f\u2014ing awesome.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US skiing icon Lindsey Vonn is officially back, clinching her spot on Team USA’s 2026 Winter Olympics roster…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[170947,24113,10480,213051,213052,9768,32696,213053,3777,700,1494,62,58047,89707,1348,103874,67,132,68,1347,232,137561],"class_list":{"0":"post-468647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-class-of-2026","9":"tag-dawn-staley","10":"tag-fiba","11":"tag-fiba-hall-of-fame","12":"tag-fiba-world-cup","13":"tag-geno-auriemma","14":"tag-jersey-retirement","15":"tag-naismith-hall-of-fame","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-retirement","18":"tag-seattle-storm","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-statue","21":"tag-sue-bird","22":"tag-team-usa","23":"tag-uconn-basketball","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa-basketball","28":"tag-wnba","29":"tag-wnba-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}