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As the world championships continue in Åre, two of the best skiers of our time have taken their final competitive runs. The wonderful thing is that both of these great athletes are walking away with medals.

This morning, the woman in is being hailed as the greatest competitive skier the U.S. has ever seen also took her final run, which also was in Downhill. Lindsey Vonn, one of most decorated professional skiers in history, took to the top of the hill in Åre for her last shot at a medal. After not having been able to participate for most of this season due to injury, Vonn attempted a comeback a few weeks ago in Cortina d'Ampezzo. However, due to more pain in her knees than she could bear, she was not able to make the podium at that event, after which she announced that she would retire after participating in the World Championships in Åre. After a fall in the SuperG event, which was won by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin, Vonn managed to get to her feet for this final race in Downhill. She looked absolutely fantastic in the final run, pushing with as much as she could with a crowd cheering her all the way to the bottom. In the end, she had a finishing time of 1:02.23.


Yesterday, Norwegian superstar Askel Lund Svindal raced for the last time in his career. Svindal has had a career reaching almost twenty years. During that time he has won Olympic gold twice, he is a two-time World Cup overall champion, and he is a five-time World Champion in several disciplines. His final career race in downhill provided him with one more medal to add to the list. With very low visibility and a sketchy upper course, Svindal was cheered down the hill by the crown taking a second place finish, with a finishing time 1:20.00 even. This was only .02 behind his teammate from Norway, Kjetil Jansrud, who took home gold in this race.


These were two wonderful runs by two of the best that have ever raced. Congratulations and good luck to whatever path you choose to take from here on out.