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When Lindsey Vonn goes for gold at next year’s PyeongChang Olympics, she will do so in the memory of her late grandfather.
Vonn’s paternal grandfather passed away last month at the age of 88, and without him, the greatest female ski racer of all time may never have taken up the sport.
“If it wasn’t for my grandfather I wouldn’t be racing,” Vonn told CNN’s Alpine Edge as she prepared for races this weekend in St Moritz, Switzerland.
“My grandfather taught my father how to ski. It’s because of him that it is in our family. It was a huge loss to me and my family. I think about him all the time, especially when I’m racing. And I feel closer to him when I’m skiing.”
Vonn said her grandfather had been stationed in what was then called Korea, not far from where the alpine events will be taking place at the Winter Games, which start in February in South Korea.
“He was with the 10th Infantry of Engineers and he was over there building all the roads,” she said.
“He was behind enemy lines a few times and was held at gun point. I was really hoping that he would make it and be able to come with me over there.
I had gone through the whole process of figuring out how to medically get him over there,” she added. “But now I hope that I can win for him. Everyone in my family wants me to win for him. I hope I can make him proud.”
Vonn is a former Olympic downhill champion and women’s World Cup record holder with 77 victories, nine shy of the all-time record.
But she is perhaps best known for her resilience and ability to bounce back from setbacks, including overcoming three potentially career-ending injuries, one of which kept her sidelined during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
It’s all down to her genes, according to Vonn.
“I think I have his work ethic,” she said. “I feel like my adversities are nothing compared to what he went through.
“So I keep that in mind whenever I have a setback. It’s really nothing. You figure it out, you get over it and keep working.”
At times her rehabilitation from injury has been so intense this year that Vonn was reduced to tears because she was so exhausted.
“I had almost eight weeks where I was just at the gym. I didn’t travel anywhere, I didn’t do anything, I was pretty lame to be around.
“This summer was really important to make sure that I was as prepared as possible for this season. It’s most likely my last Olympics so I don’t want to have any regrets that I could have worked harder.
“I literally pushed my body to its limit. I worked as hard as I possibly could. To the point where I was breaking down at the gym. But it’s all worth it if I can bring home the gold medal.”
The world's greatest female ski racer Lindsey Vonn has officially retired from the sport after her final race at the World Championships in Are. Here's a look back at her glittering career.
She made her Olympic debut at Salt Lake City 2002 as a 17-year-old, finishing 32nd in slalom and sixth in the combined slalom/downhill event.
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Lindsey Kildow -- as she was then before marrying fellow skier Thomas Vonn -- won her first World Cup race with victory in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, in 2004.
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In 2005, Vonn signed with Red Bull and began working with a completely new coaching team. She seemed set for the start of something special.
OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Any momentum from the new deal was slowed during the 2006 Olympics in Italy, though. A fall in practice resulted in a short stay in hospital. She recovered in time to compete but could only manage seventh in the Super G and eighth in the downhill events.
Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
However, Vonn quickly bounced back and won the first of three straight World Cup titles in 2008 at the age of 23.
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Golden girl Vonn achieved her Olympic dreams in 2010. She won the Olympic downhill gold at Whistler and added bronze in the super-G.
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Vonn added a fourth World Cup title in 2012, but is still behind Annemarie Moser-Proell's record of six overall crystal globes.
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Vonn's public profile went galactic when she dated star golfer Tiger Woods for two years between 2013 and 2015.
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In 2013, Vonn suffered an horrific crash at the World Championships in Austria. She underwent reconstructive knee surgery and began a long road to recovery. She attempted to return a year later, only to pull out of the 2014 Olympics after aggravating the injury again.
OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Injuries continued to hamper Vonn. She fractured her left knee in February 2016 in a crash during a World Cup super-G race in Soldeu, Andorra, but raced the combined event the next day before calling an end to her season.
Vonn worked hard to get back in time to challenge for gold medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The American left PyeongChang with a bronze medal in the downhill but insisted she was proud to have made it through her injuries.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
Vonn announced the current ski World Cup season would be her last. She is already the most successful woman in World Cup history with 82 victories and was chasing down Ingemar Stenmark's overall World Cup record of 86 victories in her sights.
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However, a knee injury from a training crash in November meant she couldn't start her season until January. On her debut in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, she was still struggling with knee pain.
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After much soul-searching Vonn announced that she will retire from skiing after competing in the World Championships in Are, Sweden in February 2019. "My body is screaming at me to STOP and it's time for me to listen," she said.
Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
In her opening race at the World Championships, Vonn suffered a heavy crash and careered into safety netting. She was eventually able to ski to the bottom and said she would still compete in the downhill to bring the curtain down on her glittering career.
Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Despite her damaged knees, Vonn was able to retire on a positive note. She battled back to win bronze in the downhill -- becoming the oldest woman to secure a medal at a world championships and the first female racer to medal at six world championships.
The American retired four wins short of equaling Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup wins and the Swedish great (left) was in Are to watch Vonn's final race. "I basically begged him to come here," Vonn said.
These days the 33-year-old Vonn’s knee needs “some tender loving care.”
“To be physically as strong as I was before takes a lot more work and a lot more maintenance. I have to get up earlier and warm my knee up.
“But I still feel like I am as strong as I was before. It just takes more time. Maybe I’m not able to do the kind of volume on snow that I used to do but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I’m doing.
“I’ve been racing forever and ever and ever. I feel like I already have the miles. I just need to execute on race day.”
And by executing on race day, that’s very much the prize of Olympic gold.
“The Olympics are definitely very important to me. Not being able to compete in Sochi because of injury was devastating. I have been waiting a long time to repeat or improve upon what I did in Vancouver.”
“I want to do what I did in Vancouver. I want another gold medal.”