This International Mother’s Day everyone, including athletes, was busy paying tribute to their wonderful mothers. However, it was a bittersweet feeling for Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn. Bitter since Vonn lost her mother in August 2022, and sweet since she still has her memories attached to her. The alpine skier recently remembered her mother in a heartfelt post.
Lindsey Vonn is still reeling over the loss of her mother Linda Krohn, and is celebrating this Mother’s Day for the first time in her absence. Her heartbreaking post about her mother is a reminder of how much she misses her.
Lindsey Vonn is still reeling from her mother’s demise
Lindsey Vonn recently took to her Instagram and wrote, “Everyone is posting beautiful things about their mothers today… and I could tell you all the ways my Mother was amazing….but today is just hard… and I just miss her”. Alongside her post, Vonn attached a picture, blank on its exterior, with just the words “I miss you Mom” written on it.
The imageless and void picture was enough to express Vonn’s feelings on this day. While she is immensely proud to have had a mother like that, she is also equally upset and unfortunate to not have her by her side on this day, and every other day. Vonn’s mother, Linda Krohn, died of ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurological disease that affects the motor neurons of a select few people.
The disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is pretty rare in its occurrence with only 5.2 people per 100,000 people getting affected by it. The disease came into the massive limelight when the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ spread worldwide in the last decade. Linda Krohn suffered from it for a year before she passed away.
Vonn’s early years with her mother
Lindsey Vonn started alpine skiing as early as she was 2 years old, and although her father pushed her into the sport, it was her mother who supported her throughout her life. However, Vonn also stated to New York Times in 2010, that her mother Linda Krohn didn’t understand her sport of choice early on. It was also because Krohn suffered a stroke while giving birth to Vonn, that gave a minor paralysis to her left leg. She said to NYT, “I couldn’t get up to the mountain to see her race”.
She also recalled, “Seventy-five percent of the people die from the stroke I had”, but Krohn lived. Unfortunately, she dies from a different disease i.e. ALS, years later. Her passing hit Vonn extremely hard, and it was further exacerbated when just months later, her friend and fellow skier Felix Neurether’s mother passed away too. This Mother’s Day and every next one following it, Vonn will miss her mother terribly. But at least she will always have her memories with her.
