at age two before moving into Erich Sailer's renowned development program at Burnsville's Buck Hill, which also produced slalom racer Kristina Koznick. Her father, who had won a national junior title before a knee injury at 18, "pushed" her very hard, according to Sailer. When Vonn was 9 years old, she met Olympic gold medalist ski racer Picabo Street, whom she considers her hero and role model. Their meeting made such an impression on Street that she remembered the meeting and later served as Vonn's mentor in skiing. Vonn commuted to Colorado to train for several years before her family moved to Vail, Colorado in the late 1990s. Vonn attended University of Missouri High School, an online program through the university's Center for Distance and Independent Study. She speaks German fluently. Despite not attending a traditional 4-year university, Vonn has gone on to participate in the four-day Harvard Business School's “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” program. Lindsey Vonn's mother Linda Krohn died in August 2022 following a one year battle with ALS. Skiing career Early years Lindsey Kildow was taught to ski by her grandfather, Don Kildow, in Milton, Wisconsin. She began skiing as a child in Burnsville, Minnesota, at Buck Hill Ski and Snowboard, and through family vacations that included 16-hour drives from Minnesota to Vail. In an interview with The New York Times, Vonn stated "I would be in the back under a sleeping bag, and she'd (her mother) be driving and singing along to some Eric Clapton tape." By the time Lindsey was 7, she had skied in Minnesota, Colorado, and Oregon year-round. When skiing in Colorado, she had lessons at Ski Club Vail (SCV), an alpine racing program (subsequently expanded and renamed Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) that taught, and still teaches skiers from ages 6 and up. During her first year at SCV, Lindsey skied under "Gravity Corps" Ski Coach Colby S. Scudder, her only female coach, in Ski Club Vail's Gravity Corps "pre-age-class" program. The program was directed by Tom Krebs who told the Gravity Corps coaches to not train the skiers inside gates, but instead to develop their all-mountain skiing skills and to develop their comfort in the fall line (the most direct route down a ski slope), while ensuring the kids were exposed to as much terrain as possible "versatility and exposure to diverse challenging terrain" was the directive. At