Lindsey Vonn defends World Cup skiing comeback, calls out critics - ESPN

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — Lindsey Vonn didn't just pop into the hospital one day, get a new titanium knee and decide on the way out that she wanted to return to downhill ski racing.

It's been a long, calculated process involving several minor and some major knee surgeries, careful vetting of the medical issues involved and months of on-snow testing in New Zealand, Austria and Colorado to see how her body and new knee would react at age 40.

So now that she is preparing to step into a World Cup starting gate this weekend for the first time in nearly six years for super-G races in St. Moritz on Saturday and Sunday, she is getting fed up with how several of her fellow skiing champions are questioning why she would return to the sport's most dangerous disciplines at her age.

«I've been thinking about getting a replacement for several years. I did a lot of research. I know people think that I'm insane, but I am actually kind of smart. I have done a few operations, so I know a few doctors. I talked to a lot of them,» Vonn said. «I talked to [extreme skier] Chris Davenport, who also had a partial knee replacement, and he skis like 150 days a year.… So that gave me a lot of confidence.»

Vonn got most of her medical advice from Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, who has operated on her knees and arm and is affiliated with the U.S. Ski Team.

«He's sort of been my guide. He helped me interview doctors from around the world to make sure that they were in it for the right reasons,» Vonn said. «A lot of doctors said they could fix me and make me better. But generally when you say that right off the bat, it's probably not true.»

Hackett helped Vonn find Martin Roche, a South Florida-based