Lindsey Vonn sat in an executive office on the ground floor of America First Field in Sandy, Utah on Saturday afternoon. Memories of the highs the stadium has seen over the last three decades decorated the walls. Strewn throughout the office were T-shirts, jackets, hats and jerseys, all with familiar colors, all with a familiar logo of the Utah Royals FC who made their long-awaited return to an NWSL market that was heartbroken to see it go a few years ago.
Like any Olympic winter star athlete, Vonn stayed on brand. Over a white Under Armor turtleneck, she donned a royal blue sweatshirt with the club she’s now part-owner of spelled across the front in royal gold. And one day, one of the most decorated and accomplished alpine skiers in history believes there will be more than just generic Royals memorabilia sprinkled on the walls in offices in the stadium.
Vonn, 39, believes she’s found her calling in retirement. It’s been just over five years since the three-time Olympic gold medalist decided to stash away her competitive downhill boots, skis, poles and helmet for good.
“I like setting paths that no one else has paved before and making it easier for someone coming up behind me to achieve what they dream,” she told The Athletic.
Last week, the Royals announced that their ownership group was officially growing. Together with co-owners David Blitzer and Ryan Smith, Vonn joined the fold, following a trend within NWSL of clubs adding celebrities as well as current and former star athletes to their ownership groups.
In suburban Salt Lake City on Saturday, America First Field was in the early stages of filling with royal blue and gold for the Royals’ season-opener against the Chicago Red Stars as Vonn explained how this next phase of her life — and her involvement in investing in women’s sports — will only further the boom the U.S. is seeing in women’s professional and collegiate sports.
“There will be girls that are here watching the game today that will be in the NWSL — without question,” she said. “That’s what gets me up every morning is trying to make those kinds of impacts on young girls.”
Vonn’s story of how she went from being a 9-year-old who liked to ski to becoming driven to be an Olympian is one she’s recounted often in her life. All she needed was to meet her hero, alpine legend Picabo Street for 90 seconds. That was enough for her to believe in a dream that was eventually realized and then some. Vonn went on to win a women’s World Cup record 82 events before that record was broken by Mikaela Shiffrin in January 2023.
“I can have a bigger impact than when I was racing. It’s a different impact. You’re inspired by your actions by investing,” Vonn said. “I’m not a player. I’m investing in other players.”
There is something tangible, Vonn explained, about understanding the weight of investment from an athlete’s point of view. She looked back on her time as a young ski racer and wondered how much more empowered she would’ve felt if say Serena Williams or Naomi Osaka or even Patrick Mahomes invested in her future.
“I feel like now I’m in a position to empower so many more people directly or indirectly instead of just performing or inspiring by my performance,” she said.
This isn’t Vonn’s first dip into NWSL waters. She is a minority investor in Angel City FC alongside Williams, the legendary Billie Jean King, and a host of celebrity actors, former women’s national team players and other pro athletes. Vonn has a home in Park City and has lived off and on in Utah since 2001 when she was preparing to compete in her first of four Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake the following year.
At Angel City, she saw what a galvanizing moment the arrival of an NWSL franchise could mean to a community. The Royals were part of the NWSL expansion in 2018 and quickly had some of the most regularly attended matches in the league averaging over 10,000 fans per home match, second only to the Portland Thorns. Their exit from the market was sudden and swift. After a series reported by The Athletic in the summer of 2020 revealed a toxic environment under the former ownership group, the Royals were eventually sold to Chris and Angie Long, who moved the team to Kansas City. Hours before the Royals made their official return to play in Utah on Saturday, KC Current investors, Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, were taking in the views at CPKC Stadium where the Current hosted the first match at a soccer-specific stadium built for an NWSL club. The place was sold out.
When Blitzer and Smith purchased Real Salt Lake in January 2022, they also kept the expansion rights within NWSL to one day bring the Royals back to Utah in a new iteration.
So when Blitzer called Vonn a year ago to tell her that both he and Smith were going to make the Royals part of the 2024 NWSL expansion, Vonn interrupted him before he could even finish his sentence. She knew what he was going to ask. “I’m in,” she chimed in.
“I could give you a hundred reasons why it’s really great to have Lindsey Vonn as a partner and working with us,” Blitzer said in a press conference before the Royals opener.
The most important, perhaps, is her understanding of the gravity of the moment. Even during her stellar racing career, Vonn utilized her platform and the microphones in front of her to voice support for gender and pay equity. In a press conference, she said of the rising popularity of women’s sports, “this isn’t a moment, it’s a movement.”
he representation Vonn exudes as part of the Royals goes beyond her lengthy list of accolades as an athlete, said Royals club president Michelle Hyncik. It extends to staff. It extends to the players who could see Vonn’s continued recovery from the rigors of one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Since her retirement, Vonn has had several knee surgeries to repair the extensive damage done during her years of racing 90 miles an hour down an icy mountain.
“To have her at the table is very meaningful,” Hyncik said.
Vonn’s addition to the club also brings forth a partnership with her foundation which has pledged to give 25 tickets per match to girls in underserved communities in Utah. She’s hoping that could balloon after the first year back in NWSL. The Royals lost their opener 2-0 to the visiting Red Stars in front of a sellout crowd of 20,370 fans. They weren’t without chances, but U.S. national team starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher kept the fans and Royals flummoxed with several highlight-reel saves.
Never one to set limitations on herself, before Vonn left the executive office and walked out to the field before the game, she was asked if this was only the beginning. Could she see herself investing in more women’s sports ventures? Vonn mentioned her affinity for the WNBA and how the explosion of Caitlin Clark’s popularity in women’s college basketball has been a massive needed spark.
Vonn looked out the window at the line of fans waiting to get in that stretched into the parking lot on the west side of America First Field, clenched her hands together and said players in the WNBA still aren’t receiving the pay equity and air time from television networks they deserve. Her racing days have been over for a while, but she’s not retired, she said. The Royals can be just the start for her, she believes.
“Become louder together,” she said, “and the impact is greater.”
