Lindsey Vonn has found a meaningful way to express her gratitude to the medical professionals who made her return to the Olympic stage possible by partnering with FIGS, a health-care apparel company, on a campaign honoring their work.
The initiative spotlights the doctors, surgeons, therapists, nurses and support staff who guided Vonn through her partial knee replacement and demanding rehabilitation, while also paying tribute to the medical profession as a whole. The campaign carries the tagline, “It takes heart to build bodies that break records,” and debuts Monday, Jan. 26, across NBC and its platforms, running throughout the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics from Feb. 6–22.
Vonn said her comeback would not exist without the belief and dedication of her medical team, who supported her through every stage of the process. She emphasized that while elite athletes often receive the spotlight, the professionals who keep them healthy and competitive are rarely given due recognition.
Few athletes understand that reality better than Vonn. The 2010 Olympic downhill champion endured numerous serious injuries during her career, particularly to her right knee. She stepped away from the sport in 2019, not because her competitive drive was gone, but because constant pain made racing impossible.
In one campaign clip, Vonn introduces herself as a champion skier before images of podium finishes give way to X-rays, underscoring how physically damaged her body had become. Everything changed in April 2024, when she underwent a partial titanium knee replacement. Within days, she regained mobility she had lacked for years. As her recovery advanced, she decided to test whether a competitive return was possible.
That decision paid off. Vonn rejoined the World Cup circuit in December 2024 and ended the season with a silver medal in the super-G at the finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. After a full offseason of training and equipment adjustments, she has dominated speed events this winter, reaching the podium in every downhill and most super-G races so far.
She noted that the surgery was originally intended simply to allow her to live without pain, making her resurgence beyond anything she expected. But she repeatedly stressed that it was the collective effort of her medical team that made it achievable.
The campaign places those individuals front and center. It features orthopedic surgeon Tom Hackett, who handled several of Vonn’s earlier procedures, and Lorenzo Gonzalez, a physical therapist and acupuncturist who helped realign her body after years of compensating for knee damage. Nurses, rehabilitation specialists, and other therapists who supported her before and after surgery are also highlighted.
Vonn said her hope is that others dealing with chronic pain can see what is possible with the right medical care, while also understanding that such outcomes are built on teamwork behind the scenes.
FIGS, a sponsor of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, will outfit Team USA’s medical staff in Milano Cortina and sought to create a Winter Games campaign centered on health-care professionals. The company was eager to collaborate when Vonn expressed interest.
Her story is especially compelling, as she is the first elite skier to return to top-level competition following an artificial knee replacement. During the procedure, orthopedic surgeon Martin Roche used robotic assistance to remove damaged bone and cartilage from the outside of her knee, replacing it with titanium while preserving her ACL and meniscus to maintain natural feel and stability.
FIGS CEO and co-founder Trina Spear said Vonn embodies the campaign’s message: believing in oneself while surrounding that belief with the right expertise. She described Vonn’s medical team as innovators who helped her defy expectations and return to medal-winning form.
As Vonn heads into the Olympics as a medal contender in the downhill, super-G and team combined, several of the medical professionals featured in the campaign will be in Cortina to watch. Vonn has long expressed her appreciation privately; now, through this partnership, she is sharing their story with a global audiencey placing them, as FIGS intends, on a podium of their own.
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