Lindsey Vonn On What It Takes To Be The Best, The Mindset To Overcome Anything & The Courage To Start Again

Michael Bosstick (0:01)

Welcome to The Bossticks. Starring Lauryn Bosstick and Michael Bosstick. Together, they are The Bossticks.

Today, we're sitting down with an absolute icon. Lindsey Vonn is one of the most decorated American ski racers in history. Today, we're getting into what it actually takes to operate at an elite level for decades and what she has learned about longevity, immune health, resilience, and listening to your body when necessary. With that, Lindsey Vonn, welcome to The Bossticks.

Lauryn Bosstick (0:31)

We talked off air and I told you I would really like for you to elaborate on all the sacrifices that it's taken for you to be such a high performer. Maybe you can walk us through some when you were young, some maybe in high school, give us some sacrifices that people haven't seen.

Michael Bosstick (0:46)

When did you even start getting into athletics since you were very little?

Lindsey Vonn (0:50)

Yeah. I started skiing when I was two and a half, and then I started racing when I was seven.

I knew I wanted to be an Olympian when I was nine. I met my childhood idol and since then, I was just like, this is what I want to do. My dad and I made a 10-year plan of how I was going to make the next Olympic. So I've always been a pretty goal-oriented, like determined person or child. But there was a lot of sacrifices. I think namely my family sacrificed a lot. We moved from Minnesota to Colorado so that I could ski. I'm the oldest of five kids, the youngest three-year triplets. And so everyone gave up a lot for me to be able to pursue this crazy dream of going 85 miles an hour down the mountain. But I didn't really have, I would say, a normal childhood or really that much of a childhood in general. I didn't really get to do the sleepovers when I was younger.

In high school, I really wasn't in high school. I did online study for a lot of it. I was in a ski academy. We're juggling academics and sports and there's no prom, there's no parties, there's really focused on skiing, athletics, getting the school done as quickly as possible so I can get on the mountain. It's hours, hours and hours and hours in the gym, on the mountain. I've been going to summer training camps since I was seven. Every summer was not spent at the amusement park or hanging with friends, it was spent on the mountain training.

Michael Bosstick (2:27)

Did that bother you or resonate with you as you were a kid or were you so focused on the goal that it didn't?

Lindsey Vonn (2:34)

I never really noticed.

I knew that other kids, especially when I was in high school, were all partying and I just didn't really find the excitement in it because also a lot of my friends were racers and they partied and then didn't ski very well. And to me, that just doesn't seem like the ROI on that doesn't add up. For me, I knew that if I went to bed early and I did what I was supposed to, that meant that I was going to ski faster and I'd rather do that than, I don't know, feel like shit hung over.

Michael Bosstick (3:12)

Wait, so you're telling me that if I take my daughter and I make her focus on the Olympics, she won't party, she won't go to sleepovers.

Lindsey Vonn (3:19)

She has to want to be in the Olympics first.

Lauryn Bosstick (3:21)

Well, you have to throw her down the hill at 85 miles an hour though, too.

Michael Bosstick (3:24)

Listen, I'd rather maybe throw her down the hill than some weird sleepover.

Lindsey Vonn (3:29)

Yeah, I mean, I don't know about sleepovers.

Michael Bosstick (3:30)

Now that I'm thinking, I think you avoid it. It's a good thing to avoid the sleepovers.

Lauryn Bosstick (3:33)

When you reflect now on your childhood, is there anything that you would change or do you look at it like it's all happened for me?

Lindsey Vonn (3:39)

You know, I think everything happens for a reason.

All the mistakes, you know, when I was younger or older, they all kind of led me down this path and I wouldn't change anything. I think my parents did an amazing job with what they had. You know, I think in the moment, I was like, some of this stuff felt really hard, but it made me a stronger person and I never felt like I was missing anything as a kid. I always was a happy kid and I enjoyed, obviously I love skiing, but I enjoyed working hard as well.