Lindsey Vonn apologised for Mikaela Shiffrin’s comments during the skiing world championships

• Pair had been proposed as a probable pair in the combined event.
• Vonn commented on X after the teams were announced.

Lindsey Vonn said that her comments criticising Mikaela Shiffrin’s participation in the skiing world championships did not assist her.

Vonn had hoped to participate alongside Shiffrin in a skiing “dream team” at the world championships for the new combined event, which will also make its Olympic debut next year. Vonn expressed her anger when Shiffrin stated on Instagram that she would be riding alongside newly crowned downhill world champion Breezy Johnson.

“Why am I not surprised?” Vonn posted on X with a shrug emoji before erasing it and adding another.

Shiffrin said on Monday that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a November incident and that she will not defend her giant slalom gold medal at the world championship. She did, however, announce she will race in the slalom and team events.

“Maybe I didn’t help myself or the team by having my Twitter fingers out,” Vonn remarked on Tuesday. “But, at the same time, I am a human being, and I was disappointed by the contact. And I made my feelings clear. I am a human. I have feelings. “So shoot me.”

The new combined event consists of one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom, with the two timings added together to determine the overall results. Johnson and Shiffrin won gold on Tuesday, while Vonn and her teammate, AJ Hurt, ended 16th after Vonn had a poor downhill run, leaving her team 21st after the morning leg. Vonn missed the medal ceremony because she needed to catch a flight, but she did congratulate Johnson and Shiffrin on X, adding, “What a team!!!”

She also expressed disappointment in her personal run.

“I was in my tuck pretty much the whole way down and just not accelerating anywhere,” said Vonn, who is 40 years old and returned to full-time skiing this season after nearly six years of retirement. So I certainly have work to do. “I need to experiment with my boots to find the best fit, but changing your entire setup during a world championship race is challenging.”

The US team’s coaching staff chose the combined pairings based on their “season-best results” in downhill and slalom.

“I didn’t have a problem with the selection process,” Vonn informed the audience. “It was absolutely the right decision. Breezy and Mikaela should be the couple. They are the two fastest skiers. My only complaint was that it was not mentioned to me. I found out about it on Instagram. And I believe it’s a bit unprofessional. It’s as simple as calling or texting. I don’t think that’s a really difficult request.

Vonn stated that she reached out to Shiffrin, who agreed that the two should race together. However, Vonn was then informed that Shiffrin would not be competing in the combined. Vonn learnt of Shiffrin’s ultimate decision to race in the event via Instagram.

“It would have been cool if those two greats had raced together, but others are currently performing better,” said US speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser. “We had to make sure to bring the fastest pairings together, and it was very obvious that Breezy was the fastest in the downhill and therefore would race with Mikaela.”