Lindsey Vonn returns to world championships at 40, ready to silence critics and challenges

When Tom Brady played in the NFL well beyond the age of 40, he wasn't considered crazy for facing 300-pound defensive linemen intent on sacking him.

When Lewis Hamilton recently got behind the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time at 40, he wasn't told he's too old for the elite auto racing series.

Marcel Hirscher didn't get nearly as many pointed questions when he recently returned to ski racing after five seasons away.

So why did Lindsey Vonn face so much second guessing in Europe about her comeback at age 40 this season after spending the same time away from the sport as Hirscher?

Before Vonn returned in December, two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister suggested that the American "should see a psychologist," adding on Austrian TV, "Does she want to kill herself?"

WATCH l Vonn talks about knee replacement and comeback journey:

"I've never fallen out of love with ski racing" Lindsey Vonn on her comeback to skiing | #CBCSports

Austrian downhill great Franz Klammer said "she's gone completely mad" and four-time overall World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen said that Vonn "hasn't recognized the meaning and purpose of her other life in recent years."

"I don't think I really deserved the disrespectful comments to the degree that they were given. I of course expected criticism in that, `Is my knee safe?' That's a valid question," Vonn said Monday when she arrived at the world championships, referring to her reconstructed right knee that is now partially titanium.

"But there were a lot of questions that had to do with me as a person and my psychological state and what life is outside of skiing. And that was completely inappropriate and disrespectful and I didn't deserve it," Vonn added.

As for the