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Lindsey Vonn: ‘I still love’ Tiger Woods

Posted at 10:58 AM, Nov 27, 2015
and last updated 2015-11-27 10:58:09-05

American skiing’s golden girl was once part of sport’s ultimate power couple and as Lindsey Vonn looks back on her relationship with Tiger Woods it’s only with warmth.

“I mean I loved him and I still love him,” Vonn told CNN’s Christina Macfarlane.

When their relationship ended in May, Vonn blamed the split on the “incredibly hectic lives that force us to spend a majority of our time apart.”

“I had an amazing three years with him,” the 31-year-old skier told CNN. “Sometimes things just don’t work out and unfortunately it didn’t work out for us.

“But I don’t have any regrets and I think we’re both in a pretty good place.”

Vonn, who has been married before, met Woods at a charity event in 2012, before the two went public about their love for one another with a Facebook post in March 2013.

Woods, who divorced ex-wife Elin Nordgren in 2010, spoke glowingly of Vonn and let his kids, Sam and Charlie, get to know the skier.

She attended tournaments to support him on the golf course, while Woods also showed up at Vonn’s World Cup races.

Despite having no regrets over dating Woods, Vonn is unsure whether she will be pursuing a new relationship any time soon.

“I’m enjoying just kind of focusing on myself right now,” she said. “I’ve realized that I only have three, maybe more, but realistically three good years of racing left.

“So it’s kind of nice to just focus on that and focus on my career. But I don’t know, you never know what’s going to happen.”

After a painstaking two-year lay-off with injury, Vonn returned in style last season, winning 19 crystal globes and finishing third in the overall World Championship race.

She also broke the record for the most World Cup race victories previously held by Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proll — a record of 62 which Vonn eclipsed at Cortina d’Ampezzo in January.

While success in this season’s World Cup is the immediate target, the lure of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang remains the ultimate attraction.

The 2010 downhill Olympic gold medalist is one of the more senior competitors left in the field and the South Korea Games is likely to offer her final chance for sporting immortality.

Maria Riesch has retired, Julia Mancuso has undergone surgery and Tina Maze, a long-time rival of Vonn, has taken a year out, with the Slovenian yet to confirm when she will return.

“It’s kind of weird that my generation is kind of gone now and the new generation is coming up,” said Vonn, who will take to the slopes over the weekend at the Aspen Winternational. “I feel like a veteran. I don’t know if I like that.”

While gold and glory still beckons for Vonn, she is already looking beyond the end of her career as her thoughts turn to motherhood.

“It’s very frustrating,” Vonn added. “If I didn’t want to have kids I could probably ski until my late thirties, if my body held up.

“It’s just something that you have to think about as a woman. Life is a lot different. You can’t have a family at home and keep racing. It’s one or the other.”