Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Vonn celebrates the US win at the 2017 Ullr World Championships
Skiing star Lindsey Vonn has shared her thoughts on mental health with the BBC about the importance of having a recovery period.
The 33-year-old American has undergone a carer of treatment after an accident in November.
It was Vonn’s fourth back operation and her fifth on the same knee, so she says she’s developing an appreciation for the mental side of her job.
She adds that “even though you have this high, at the end of the day you’re human” and hopes there is more awareness around mental health.
Vonn also has her sights set on making it to Tokyo, the first host city of the Winter Olympics and one she says has been her “absolute favourite” since she took up skiing aged 13.
It seems the views of her training partner and fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin influence her as well.
“She’s such a positive role model. She is what I strive to be,” Vonn says.
“I learned so much from her what it is to be a professional athlete and a woman of some status.”
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lindsey Vonn poses with the WRC women’s World Cup women’s Super G trophy
It was Shiffrin who said she didn’t mind being labelled as a “poster girl” for female athletes as long as she showed “the real person”, Vonn adds.
Vonn hopes that being “more natural and more authentic” will help her make her way up the mountain as well as in future off it.
Vonn is the most decorated female skier in World Cup history and won her last World Cup race in December 2016, and she would love to finish her career with the Winter Olympics medal tally.
She is making her fifth appearance at the Olympic Winter Games and won a bronze in Vancouver in 2010, her first gold came four years later in Sochi.
“I would like to win a medal because I think that’s a special honour that comes with being a World Cup champion and winning World Championships,” Vonn says.
“I really believe in the process.”
Vonn is looking forward to hosting her third birthday party, and she says it could be “the greatest party of my life” in the way of a party being held in winter.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Vonn’s latest procedure was her fourth on the same knee
She’s said the skiing and fashion worlds are “opposite sides of the coin” but also revealed a link to fashion on the inside, speaking about designs she wore in November’s Ullr World Championships.
The ski boots she was wearing inspired “dresses” Vonn says she modelled after one that she was given for her 16th birthday.
