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American Olympic gold medalist alpine skier Lindsey Vonn said in a 2017 interview that if she was invited to President Donald Trump’s White House, she would decline the invitation. But in 2025, she was not so quick to declare her refusal.
Pakinomist Digital asked Vonn if she would accept an invitation from the White House after the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) media summit on Tuesday.
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Lindsey Vonn, right, reacts after receiving her bronze medal in the women’s downhill in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“First of all, I just want to say that usually every Olympic athlete from Team USA is invited … it has nothing to do with whether you win a medal or not,” Vonn said.
“I don’t want to answer that question because I just don’t want to answer it. I want to keep my passport,” she added.
Vonn first announced her refusal to visit the White House in December 2017, just ahead of the 2018 Pyeonchang Olympics.
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This file photo shows Lindsey Vonn at a news conference about her future at the Sochi Olympics, the World Championships season and the 2015 World Championships at Gold Peak, Vail, Colo. (AP/File)
“Absolutely not,” Vonn said when asked if she wanted to go during the CNN interview in 2017. “No. But I have to win to be invited. No, actually I think every American team member is invited, so no, I don’t want to go.”
Vonn went on to suggest that she did not want to represent the president.
“Well, I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,” Vonn said at the time. “I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony. I want to represent our country well. I don’t think there are many people in our government who do that at the moment.”
Vonn, 41, came out of a five-year retirement last year, breaking the record for the oldest alpine skiing world champion on the podium.
Lindsey Vonn of the United States wins the bronze medal during the women’s downhill alpine skiing at Jeongseon Alpine Center on February 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
Now she is looking to get back to the Olympics in February.
Vonn is expected to race for the first time this World Cup season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, starting on December 12.
