PowerShift: Lindsey Vonn

From a young age, Lindsey Vonn was determined to become a professional (and majorly successful) skier. Her and her father laid out a ten year plan before she was even ten years old, and at age 14 she won Italy’s Trofeo Topolino, becoming the first American woman to do so. She didn’t stop there, though, and went on to win multiple Olympic medals throughout her career, as well as 82 World Cup wins. Lindsey sustained many serious injuries during her time as an athlete, but never let them keep her down and managed to always make a come back just when it seemed like she would be forced to retire. When she did decide to retire on her own terms, she opened the Lindsey Vonn Foundation, a charity that provides academic and sports scholarships to students while assisting them in discovering their inner strength. She has been able to maintain several sponsorships and partnerships derived from her skiing career while making routine visits to her charity camps, proving that she doesn’t need to be a current Olympic athlete to remain influential.