Is Lindsey Vonn dating Tim Tebow?

First Lindsey Vonn says she and her husband are getting a divorce. Then, she pays tribute to Tim Tebow by copying his prayerful pose after a recent World Cup win. Then she is spotted watching the Denver Broncos game Sunday from Tebow's private box. This led to some speculation that the two are an item.

Vonn says no. On her Twitter account she wrote:

"Hearing a lot of crazy rumors but rest assured I am NOT dating Tim Tebow (or anyone else). I'm just friends with his family. xo, LV"

Can you just imagine how insane the hype around Tebow would have been if he had been dating Vonn? Take what it is now, then multiply it by 10. The next thing you know people will be writing about people Tebow might possibly be dating. Oh, wait.......

As Vonn told the Denver Post:

"I pretty much know their whole family now. They're great people. It's pretty awesome to be able to hang out with them — and to be able to witness the amazing things Tim and the Broncos can do."

It's Tim Tebow's world, and we are just living in it.

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Photo: Lindsey Vonn strikes a Tim Tebow pose after winning a World Cup race on Dec. 7. Credit: Francis Bompard Getty Images.

Skier Lindsey Vonn imitates Tim Tebow after victory

Skier Lindsey Vonn finally won her first World Cup race held in the U.S., then paid tribute to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow by "tebowing" at the podium.

"Tebowing" is what it's called when he takes to one knee and prays during football games.

Tim Tebow's brother, Bobby was at the super-G race, which was held in Beaver Creek, Colo. Vonn asked him if a "Tebowing" celebration would be OK. He gave his blessing.

The race was scheduled originally for Val d'Isere, France, but was moved to Colorado because of insufficient snow in France, giving Vonn a chance for her first victory in the U.S.

"It was awesome," Vonn said. "I looked up in the crowd and saw a lot of kids. I saw a lot of American flags waving, and it's really special. . . . I've always wanted to race here at home, since the world championships in '99 when I was a course slipper. Of the 46 wins I have so far, this has probably been the most special."

Vonn, 27, is already the most successful U.S. racer in World Cup history. Now she is tied with Austria's Renate Goetschl​ in third place on the all-time list for women's World Cup wins. The record, 62, is held by Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria.

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Photo: Lindsey Vonn does her best Tim Tebow impression. Credit: John B. Mabanglo / EPA.

Lindsey Vonn, husband to divorce

Olympic gold-medal-winning skier Lindsey Vonn and her husband, Thomas Vonn, have announced they will be divorcing after four years of marriage.

Lindsey Vonn said she will keep her married name. She was known as Lindsey Kildow before her 2007 marriage.

"This is an extremely difficult time in my personal life and I hope the media and my fans can respect my need for privacy on this matter," she said in a statement.

In addition to being her husband, Thomas Vonn coordinated his wife's interviews and served as a quasi-coach. He said he is ending all input concerning her career.

Lindsey Vonn won a gold medal in the downhill and a bronze in the super-G at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

She also has won three overall World Cup titles and has 42 World Cup race victories, fourth place on the career list. She is also one of only five female skiers to win a race in all five Alpine disciplines.

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Photo: Lindsey and Thomas Vonn in 2010. Credit: Allessandro Della Bella / Associated Press

 

 

Philip Hersh: World gold burnishing Ligety's place in U.S. ski annals

 

Ted Ligety joined a select club Friday.

He now is one of only a half-dozen U.S. alpine skiers to have won gold medals at both the Olympics and World Championships.

Ligety's victory in the giant slalom at the 2011 worlds in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, added his name to a list that includes Bode Miller, Phil Mahre, Lindsey Vonn, Picabo Street and Barbara Cochran.

(Technically, Gretchen Fraser and Andrea Mead Lawrence were doublers as well, but they earned both in one fell swoop, when Olympic medals also counted as world medals.)

Ligety's Olympic triumph came in the combined at the 2006 Winter Games.

He was more impressed by the world title because it came at a point when he had a reputation of success to defend.

I wrote last month how Ligety has been quietly been putting together one of the more impressive records in U.S. ski history, including the 2008 and 2010 World Cup season titles in giant slalom and a bronze medal at the 2009 worlds in the event.  To read that story, click here.

"The Olympic gold medal in combined and winning a world championship are very different,'' Ligety said Friday.  "The Olympics are bigger and I was the surprise victor in that event, so I didn't have the pressure on me to perform.

"But being able to perform when you're supposed to win is far more difficult than just putting it on the line like I did at the [2006] Olympics. To be able to put down two good runs and win is that much more special."

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Ted Ligety' Credit: Odd Andersen / Getty Images

 

The latest on Lindsey Vonn: She pulls out of final worlds events

Skier Lindsey Vonn has decided to let discretion be the better part of valor.

Vonn said today on her Facebook page she will skip the final three events at the World Championships to get over the lingering effects of a Feb. 2 concussion.

In the past two days, Vonn has faced questions from the European media over whether her injury was real since she still was skiing -- and winning silver in Sunday's downhill.  Even Maria Riesch, Vonn's leading rival and longtime friend, chimed in on the subject in general terms.

"It's kind of hard to talk about not feeling well when you're winning medals," Riesch said after winning two world bronze medals while skiing with the flu.

Then there were questions from the U.S. media over whether she were taking too big a risk by racing with a head injury.  She answered several Sunday, as noted in my previous blog entry, which you can read by clicking here.

The upshot is Vonn is taking time to rest.  She said she has been unable to focus for an entire race, a dangerous situation for someone traveling 70 miles per hour on a couple sticks.

"My hope is that I will be healthy and fresh when the World Cup tour resumes at the end of the month in Are, Sweden,'' she said in the Facebook entry.

The last three races at worlds include Vonn's weakest individual events, slalom and giant slalom, plus the insignificant team event.  Vonn had hoped most to race the giant slalom even though, ironically, it was a crash in giant slalom training that had led to the concussion.

For video of that crash, click here.

It was just one of several racing or training accidents for Vonn this season.  Among them: a crash in downhill training in late January that led to a sprained the medial collateral ligament of her left knee; and a spectacular near wipeout with no consequences other than some lost time at a Lake Louise race in December.

"I have had an unusual amount of crashes or near crashes this year, (but) most of the injuries so far have been really manageable,'' Vonn said Sunday. "This head injury seems to be one of the toughest I've faced because it's not about fighting through it.''

Yet she kept trying, which seemed foolhardy for a skier with nothing left to prove, given the danger another bump on the head could cause someone still recovering from a concussion, even if she knew a CT scan had shown no major injuries.

Vonn said Sunday that after the ski team's medical staff cleared her to race, the decision remained hers, and her competitive stubbornness took over.

That's another way of saying she is hard-headed. Something knocked sense into her over the past 24 hours.

You may have to be a little crazy to be a ski racer, but there are limits.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn crashes into the netting in the first run of the giant slalom at the 2010 Olympics. She broke the little finger of her right hand. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Philip Hersh: Vonn shakes cobwebs, wins silver in world downhill [Updated]

Lindsey Vonn has won everything -- Olympic gold, world championship gold, World Cup titles, more World Cup races than any U.S. skier in history.

So second place at a major event should be no big deal to her.

But there was a good reason why Vonn said the silver medal she won in Sunday's World Championships downhill  "feels like a gold.''

 Just a few days ago, the concussion Vonn suffered in a Feb. 2 training crash had left her wondering whether she should risk racing again in the biennial world meet at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

After all, it's hard enough to hurtle down an ice-injected hill at 70 mph with all your faculties, let alone with a few cobwebs in the head.

[Updated 1 p.m.:  Which raises the issue of whether she is using her head or just being bull-headed by continuing to race with lingering effects of the concussion.

"Medically speaking, I'm doing what the doctors are telling me,'' she said Sunday in a conference call with U.S. reporters. "Every day, I'm feeling better, but I'm still having some symptoms in the race.'']

Doctors cleared Vonn to defend her 2009 Super-G title last Tuesday, but she lacked the confidence to go all out and wound up seventh. 

"I still don't have the concentration, agility and mental quickness to ski the way I am accustomed to,'' Vonn wrote Tuesday on her Facebook page.

 Then she tried the downhill leg of the combined Friday but decided to skip the slalom leg and still was uncertain about what to do.

 She felt good enough Sunday to defend the downhill title and wound up just forty-four one-hundredths of a second behind Austria's Elisabeth Goergl, who has matched Vonn's 2009 feat of double gold in the speed races, Super-G and downhill.

"I couldn't be happier,'' Vonn said about winning her fifth career world championships medal.

["I have had a rough couple weeks,'' Vonn said. "This injury has been really tough for me. I wasn't 100 percent today, but I'm really happy with the silver medal.''

Vonn actually has had a rough ride all season in terms of crashes that tweaked her knees and could have caused serious injuries.  But none has affected her like the concussion.  And, just to give her more of a headache, some European media have questioned whether this injury is real since she has continued to ski fast -- if not her fastest -- with it.

"They think I'm just making it up and am really not injured,'' she said. "If you look [at video of the Feb. 2 crash], I definitely hit my head, and I definitely am injured. I'm trying to explain my story and just tell people how I feel, and I guess some people don't believe me.''

Vonn said she has been taking a series of concussion-related tests every morning and skis only after the on-site team medical staff, including Dr. William Sterett, an orthopedic surgeon, says she has passed them. While saying she feels fine in normal activities, Vonn admitted the concussion still is having an impact when she races.

"I struggle maintaining focus from top to bottom,'' she said. "I'm still have issues about three-quarters of the way down. I don't have the concentration I need. I'm not able to ski the way I want to. I just become more passive.

" 'I wouldn't say I'm afraid. I'm just not as self-confident as I normally am.''

Vonn declined to elaborate on details of what symptoms precipitate the focus problem. She admitted a slip near the end of Sunday's race could be attributed to the declining concentration. 

"In general, I had a harder time with [course] bumps,'' she said. "When I start to lose focus, it becomes really difficult for me to stay shead of the course, so to speak. The bumps tend to throw me around.  I almost went down there.'']

 Vonn said she was unsure about skiing any of the final three races at worlds -- the team event, giant slalom and slalom. The team event has yet to gain any traction since being introduced at worlds in 2005, and the GS and slalom are Vonn's weakest disciplines.

[There also the question of why she has raced at all, knowing another head impact while she is recovering from a concussion could lead to a more damaging injury. She said the doctors have outlined the risk for her.

"I am fully aware [of the dangers],'' she said. "I realize the risk is very high, but I think we have made safe decisions. I passed every test along the way. It's a tough situation because I'm [only] getting symptoms while I'm skiing.''

After the medical staff has cleared her, Vonn said, "ultimately it's my decision. I'm stubborn. I'm a competitor. I never can say no.''

Vonn did not rule out the possibility of not racing again this season.

Rest may help her before the World Cup season resumes Feb. 25. Trying to win a fourth straight World Cup overall title, she currently trails Germany's Maria Riesch by 156 points in a scoring system where a race victory earns 100, with points awarded on a sliding scale down to 30th place.

"I'm definitely unsure about what I should do next,'' she said. "How can I feel 100 percent again? The only answer is to take time off, but it's really hard to do when you are at a world championship event. My goal for the next coming weeks is to finish the season strong and try to defend my title the best I can.'']

 --Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn flashes a golden smile after winning silver in Sunday's downhill at the World Championships. (Odd Andersen / Getty Images)

 

 

Philip Hersh: Julia Mancuso adds another big line to her impressive ski record

It seems a contradiction: Julia Mancuso, long one of the most outgoing personalities in sports, quietly putting together a resume that makes her one of the most outstanding people in her sport.

Mancuso added another line to it Tuesday, finishing second in the super-G as the World Alpine Championships opened in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

It was her fourth world medal, with two bronzes in 2005 and a silver in 2007.

"Still chasing the win,'' Mancuso said after losing to Elisabeth Goergl of Austria by just 5/100ths of a second Tuesday. "I'll remember I need those five hundredths. I really, really wanted to win.''

Mancuso has the win -- and at the Olympics, no less.  

But her giant slalom triumph in 2006 went largely overlooked with all the focus on Bode Miller's failures.

And her two Olympic silvers last February disappeared under the avalanche of attention given her teammate, Lindsey Vonn, who has captured more media than any other U.S. winter sports athlete the last three seasons.

Vonn also captured a lot of male libidos by appearing in scanty bikinis in the 2010 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Mancuso had struck similarly alluring poses in skimpy underthings a few years earlier as a "Lange girl,'' but those images for a boot manufacturer got no circulation outside the ski world.

That she chafes over Vonn always being on center stage was apparent last winter, when my colleague Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated got Mancuso to talk about it.

"It really feels like not many people know about my gold medal," Mancuso told Layden. "Why does the media have to have just one star? When I got my silver in the combined and Lindsey fell, all the headlines were like VONN FALLS, MANCUSO SECOND. Why couldn't the stories say VONN LIVES UP TO GOLD EXPECTATIONS; MANCUSO SHINES TOO? It seems like a popularity contest."

Vonn, defending world champion in the super-G, came into Tuesday's race uncertain about whether she would ski after sustaining a concussion in training last week. Monday, she had launched a justifiable broadside about the dangerous conditions the women were facing on an ice-injected course so slick another U.S. skier said she could see her reflection on the track.

Vonn finished seventh Tuesday with a run that plainly was conservative.

"It's not hard to see who the best was today; they really deserved it, and I'm just disappointed I wasn't quite with it, my head wasn't in it," Vonn said.

Mancuso plainly didn't want to hear about that.

After Tuesday's race was over, a journalist asked Mancuso for her opinion on Vonn: "What do you make of Lindsey's situation?  Did she psych herself out yesterday [talking about the danger]?  She's obviously not 100% as well.''

Mancuso's answer seemed tellingly brief.

"Yuh, I'm not sure, I don't really know her situation,'' Mancuso said.

Mancuso said she wound up being surprised by course conditions, which did not create the gaps between finishers she expected.

"I was listening to the reports and everyone said, 'You've really got to go for it. It's not slick at all; it's just bumpy,''' she said.  

Mancuso expects similar conditions for Sunday's downhill, which should work to her advantage, especially since her World Cup downhill performances this season have been among the best of her career. They include a second (to Vonn's third) at the most recent World Cup downhill. 

"It's going to be turny, and [you will need] a little more speed control,'' Mancuso said. That should play to the advantage of a skier such as Mancuso, with a strong record in giant slalom.

The super-combined comes up first (Friday), and both Mancuso and Vonn should be leading medal contenders there. Vonn is the defending champion in the downhill.

"I still don't have the concentration, agility, and mental quickness to ski the way I am accustomed to,'' Vonn said Tuesday on her Facebook page. "I've decided together with my husband, doctors and coaches to skip tomorrow's downhill training run. I will continue to skip training runs and events until I feel normal again.''

Vonn has earned her attention, and her career numbers clearly are better than Mancuso's: four world medals (two gold, two silver), two Olympic medals and, the big difference, three straight World Cup overall and super-G season titles plus four straight downhill titles. Mancuso has not won a World Cup season title.

But Mancuso deserves props, too.

It would, of course, be typical if she turns out to be the U.S. star in these post-Olympic worlds, when most of her country probably thinks skiers are just waiting for the next Winter Games.

When everyone is waiting to see Lindsey Vonn again.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Julia Mancuso struts her stuff after winning world silver Tuesday.  Credit: Odd Andersen / Getty Images