Babe of the Month - Lindsey Vonn, alpine skiing legend!

Lindsey Caroline Vonn, alpine skiing's poster girl, is as ruthless, brilliant and successful as they come in the competitive world of alpine racing.

Born Lindsey Caroline Kildow on 18th October 1984, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Lindsey Vonn is one of the world's top female skiers. Growing up in Minnesota, with her four siblings, Vonn began her ascent to sports stardom as a toddler, when her father, former competitive skier Alan Kildow, first put her on skis. He would later serve as her first coach. Vonn started racing at the age of 7 years.

Vonn then trained locally with coach Erich Sailer before moving to Vail, Colorado, in the late 1990's. In 1999, the 14-year-old Vonn made history when she won the slalom at Trofeo Topolino in Italy, becoming the first American woman to attain this honor. Over the next few years, she excelled as a junior competitor, and at 17 years old she was selected for the U.S. Ski team for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she came 6th in the combined. The following year, she won a silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Puy Saint-Vincent, France.

In 2005, Vonn joined the Red Bull Athletes Special Projects and began working with a new coaching team. Around this time, Vonn wrote on her website: "I had a feeling this was going to be my big chance." Vonn had high hopes for the 2006 Olympic Games in San Sicario, Italy; but during a practice run, she had a terrible accident she was evacuated by helicopter to Turin and was hospitalized overnight. She still competed, however, coming in seventh in the Super G and eighth in the downhill events.


Vonn made an impressive comeback the following year, winning two silver medals at the 2007 World Championships in Sweden, in the downhill and the Super G.
Vonn then began her winning streak at the World Cup in 2008, with a downhill championship victory — marking her domination of the sport.

In 2009, she took the gold in the downhill and Super G competitions at the World Championships and won both the downhill and Super G events at the World Cup.


In 2010, Vonn got the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. She won two medals at the Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada; she earned the top honor - her first gold medal - in the downhill, and took home the bronze in the Super G. Over the next few years, Vonn continued to dominate the sport. She took top honors at the World Cup in the downhill, Super G and combined events over three consecutive seasons.

On 5th February 2013, Vonn suffered a debilitating injury at the World Championships in Austria. After tearing both her ACL and MCL, along with fracturing her lateral tibial plateau, she underwent reconstructive knee surgery soon after. It took several months of recovery for Vonn to recover before she would be able to hit the slopes once again. She was next seen skiing at a training camp in August.

All seemed well as Vonn stated that her injured right knee felt as good as her left on the slopes, but she aggravated her injury while training on November 19. She competed and placed 40th, 11th and fifth in the Super G at Lake Louise, Alberta, the following month. Unfortunately, only two weeks later, she had to remove herself from a World Cup downhill competition in Val d'lsere, France, after her MCL was sprained. The sprain, in addition to her torn ACL, made Vonn's likelihood in competing during the 2014 Winter Olympics unlikely. She announced on 7th January 2014, that she would not be able to compete in the Winter Olympics.

Vonn made her comeback on 6th December 2014 at the Women’s World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise, Alberta, winning the event in only her second race back. On 18th March 2015, Vonn won the last World Cup downhill race at Meribel, France and claimed the World Cup downhill title for the seventh time. The next day, Vonn notched her eighth victory of the season by winning the last super-G race. With this win, Vonn took the super-G season title for a fifth time, tying a record shared by German Katja Seizinger, Austrian Hermann Maier and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.

On 11th November 2016, Vonn announced that she had severely fractured the humerus bone of her right arm in a training crash. She had undergone surgery to repair the bone. Vonn returned to the World Cup on 15th January 2017, in the downhill race at Altenmarkt, Austria where she finished 13th. On 20th January in her second race back from injury, she won the downhill event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, capturing her 77th win, an all-time women's record, passing Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria who had held the record since the 1970's.

Vonn made headlines in 2012, when it was reported that she was dating American golf superstar Tiger Woods, after meeting him at a charity event in 2012. The pair went public with their romance in March 2013, but they announced their breakup in May 2015 due to their busy schedules.
Vonn was previously married to former competitive skier Thomas Vonn from 2007 to 2011.

Lindsey's hobbies include cycling, tennis, reading, and watching NBC's Law & Order.

Though she makes many public appearances, Vonn says training takes up most of her life except for a few weeks after the ski season. Her hobbies include cycling, tennis, reading, and watching NBC's Law & Order.

Vonn appeared in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition which featured Olympians from the 2010 Winter Games, and in 2016 she took part in a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated, wearing only body paint.

You can follow Lindsey on: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and also on her Website 

Hannah Teter and Clair Bidez - US Snowbarding Babes

Hannah Teter (born 27th January, 1987 in Belmont, Vermont, USA) is a US Professional Snowboarder.

Hannah started snowboarding at the age of eight, taking her first lesson at her home mountain of Okemo. By 2002 at the age of fifteen, she was the World Junior Halfpipe Champion, and had begun riding on the FIS Snowboard World Cup circuit.
























From 2002–2004 Teter competed in seven World Cup events winning four of them.
In 2005 she won a bronze medal at the FIS World Championships at Whistler, British Columbia.

At the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, she became an Olympic Champion, taking the gold medal in the halfpipe, and her accomplishment was rewarded further by the United States Olympic Committee, who named her the USOC SportsWoman of the Year. She also won the ESPY Award for Best Action Sports Female in 2006.

In January 2010, Teter was named to the US Team for the 2010 Winter Olympicsin Vancouver. She won the silver medal in women's halfpipe at the Vancouver Games.

Hannah in snowboarding action in Vancouver.

In 2008 Teter founded a charity called Hannah's Gold which raises money through the sales of Vermont maple syrup. The charity, in partnership with World Vision, helps to support the village of Kirindon, Kenya through building schools, digging fresh water wells, and providing water filtration.

In 2009 Teter donated all of her prize money to the Kirindon program. She has also worked to raise money for Darfur and other causes, sponsors children in Honduras and the Philippines through Children International, and is a spokesperson for Boarding for Breast Cancer.
In 2009, Vermont based ice cream company Ben & Jerry's created a new flavour in honour of their fellow Vermonter: 'Hannah Teter's Maple Blondie.' The new flavour went on sale in December 2009, and a portion of proceeds will go to Teter's charity.

In 2010 Teter launched a new charity initiative, 'Sweet Cheeks,' which donates 40% of the sales proceeds from an exclusive line of underwear to partner organization 'Children International' to help feed children living in extreme poverty around the world.

Also in 2010, Teter was also one of four American athletes chosen to model for the 'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue' in a section devoted to Winter Olympians.

Also see: HannahTeter/Facebook and HannahTeter/Twitter

Clair Bidez (born on the 8th July, 1987 in Vail, Colorado, USA) is a US Professional Snowboarder.

Clair first started skiing at a young age and by time she was nine she was ski racing in Colorado. She made the switch to snowboarding in 1996 after being introduced to the sport by her younger brother Dylan, and her competitive career began in 2004 with local USASA contests, which in turn helped develop her halfpipe riding to new levels.
























As a member of the US Snowboarding team, Bidez's breakout season came in 2005-06, when she won both the USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain and the Junior World Championships. She also claimed seventh at the Burton New Zealand Open

Making her X Games debut in 2006, Bidez finished just out of the medals in fourth place. She went on to claim a pair of podium finishes on the 2008 Grand Prix circuit. After breaking her right heel at the beginning of 2009 and battling the nagging injury, Bidez struggled to match her early performances, although still producing consistent top-15 finishes.

Clair snowboarding at a Grand Prix meeting in Utah.

With four spots open on the 2010 US Olympic snowboarding team, Bidez made a strong push to make the squad and never finished below ninth on the Grand Prix circuit. However, with an eighth place rank overall she just missed the cut.

In 2010, Bidez (like Hannah Teter) was one of four American athletes chosen to model for the 'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue' in a section devoted to Winter Olympians.

Also see: Clair Bidez/Twitter

Lindsey Vonn - American Alpine Ski Babe

Lindsey Vonn (née Kildow, born 18th October, 1984 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA) is a US alpine ski racer.

In 1999, Vonn became the first American female to win at Italy's Trofeo Topolino (for skiers of ages 11–14) where she was victorious in slalom. After climbing through the ranks of the U.S. Ski Team, she made her World Cup debut aged 16 on the 18th November, 2000 in Park City, Utah.

Lindsey Vonn made her Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where she raced in both the slalom and combined in Salt Lake City, coming sixth in the combined.

At her second Winter Olympics held in Turin, Italy in 2006, Vonn crashed while training for the downhill race and was evacuated by helicopter and hospitalized overnight. Despite a bruised hip, she returned the following day to compete and finished eighth. The gritty performance earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, as voted by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, former U.S. Olympians, and members of the media for 'best representing the Olympic Spirit.'

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Vonn won the gold medal in downhill, the first American woman to do so. She also won bronze in the Super-G (Super Giant Slalom).

She also won three consecutive overall World Cup championships ( in 2008, 2009, 2010), the first American woman and only the second woman ever to accomplish this.

With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, 34 World Cup wins in four disciplines (Downhill, Super G, Slalom and Super-Combined), her two World Championship gold medals and two World Championship silver medals, Lindsey Vonn has become the most successful American woman skier in history.

Read more at: http://www.lindseyvonn.com

Also see: Lindsey Vonn/Facebook and Lindsey Vonn/Twitter