VAIL, CO (Aug. 18) —Vail Resorts announced today a four-year sponsorship agreement with U.S. Ski Team athlete Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) as the two-time World Cup overall champion and double World Champion begins her quest for the Olympic podium in Vancouver.

"Vail played a pivotal role in Lindsey's career when she spent her formative years in the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail program," said U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt. "This sponsorship highlights the important partnership role our U.S. ski resorts, like Vail, play in developing hometown heroes like Lindsey Vonn."

Vail Mountain has supported Vonn throughout her career and under the new partnership, Vonn will represent all of the company’s five world-class resorts–Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly. Vonn will appear at select consumer events and ski shows in the U.S. and Europe this fall, prior to the start of the season, to generate excitement for skiing and snowboarding, the upcoming Olympic Games.

“Skiing is truly my life and my passion and I am always striving to achieve excellence in everything I do on the snow," said Vonn, who last season earned the honor of most successful female ski racer in American history. "I could not be more proud to partner with Vail Resorts because they share the same values as I do. Everyone there is as passionate about the mountains as I am, and each of their five ski resorts truly defines the best that skiing and snowboarding has to offer. Vail Mountain has always been my favorite ski resort. It’s where I grew up and learned to race. My husband Thomas and I are truly thrilled to be coming back to Vail and making it our home.”

Vonn is truly unique in being one of only a handful of racers to compete in five disciplines: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined. She is the only American woman to have won two World Cup overall titles, which she achieved consecutively in the 2008 and 2009 winter seasons. She has made the World Cup podium 47 times, the most of any U.S. female, including 22 victories.

"It would be hard to imagine any individual who better personifies the ideals of Vail Resorts than Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey’s enthusiasm for skiing, her dedication and hard work, and her achievements both on the snow and off make her a role model for all of us, but especially for every kid participating in our sport,” said Rob Katz, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Vail Resorts.

Vonn competed in both the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Winter Games. At the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, she overcame a horrendous crash in a training run prior to the downhill event, but went on to compete while injured, finishing in eighth place in the downhill and seventh in super G. Vonn’s courageous performance earned her the U.S. Olympic Committee’s “Olympic Spirit” award.

While she was born in Burnsville, MN in 1984, Vonn considers Vail her “hometown” as she and her family commuted to Vail for training for several years before finally moving there permanently in the late 90s to further her racing career.

Lindsey spent her formative years on Vail Mountain, honing her racing skills in all alpine disciplines with the Ski & Snowboard Club of Vail, then went on to make the U.S. Ski Team and achieve success in major U.S. and international events such as the Junior Olympics, Junior Worlds, NorAms and Europa Cup before entering the World Cup circuit.