Lindsey Vonn

Downhill race (edition.cnn.com (edition.cnn.com))

What makes a hero? This is a question puzzled over by many. Some may say that heroes always save the day, like Superman, but the truth is, not all heroes save the day, some don't even save lives. There are heroes all around you, undiscovered or otherwise. A hero might even be that person you sit next to each day. The dictionary definition of a hero is: "A man or woman of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his/her brave deeds and/or noble qualities." This applies to a lot of people in the world, but my definition of a hero is someone who has faced challenges and overcome them no matter the circumstance, they should be passionate and dedicated to what they do or their cause. Someone like Lindsey Vonn. She is ranked number 1 on the list of top female skiers and faced numerous challenges to battle her way up to that position.

Lindsey Caroline Vonn, born October 18, 1984, was brought up in Burnsville, Minnesota until she was 11, then moved to Vail, Colorado. She started skiing at the age of two, at Buck Hill Ski and Snowboard in Burnsville, then as she grew older, making the 16-hour commute to Vail for family vacations and to occasionally train at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail. When she was 10, she met her personal hero, Picabo Street. The meeting made a large impression on Street and she later mentored Lindsey. At 11, Lindsey, her mother, Linda, and her siblings (two brothers, Reed and Dylan, and two sisters, Laura and Karin) moved to Vail to pursue Lindsey's skiing which paid off as she became the first American athlete to win the "Cadets" slalom in Italy, then climbed through the ranks in the U.S ski team until she debuted at the 2000 World Cup at age 16. This would have surely bred some admirable characteristics and trust me, it did. She clearly shows drive, persistence, and dedication to name a few.

The word "drive" means "to strive vigorously toward a goal or objective; to work, play, or try wholeheartedly and with determination." This definitely describes Lindsey's attitude towards skiing. She attacks every challenge with vigour and doesn't stop for anything, not even a badly bruised hip and various extreme muscle pains could stop her competing in her downhill race at the 2006 Winter Olympics, which she finished in eighth.

Lindsey Vonn at Vancouver 2010 Olympics (NBCNews.com (NBCNews.com))

Persistence means "persisting, especially in spite of opposition, obstacles, discouragement etc; perseverance; sticking at something." Lindsey has faced many obstacles, many of them injuries. Her most serious injury was torn ligaments in her knee and a fracture in the top of her tibia bone, that was re-injured twice. She stuck at keeping fit because her ultimate goal was to compete in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which she couldn't do unfortunately as she couldn't come back from her second regression that fast. Even after that, Lindsey focused on getting fitter, faster and obviously succeeded as she surpassed record-holder Annemarie Moser-Proell for most World Cup wins by a woman in 2016 (70). She didn't give up even when she felt like scrapping everything and quitting. She persisted and kept working at it because she had the end goal of the Sochi Olympics, even though that ended up not happening.

In conclusion, Lindsey Vonn is a driven, persistent, and dedicated woman from Colorado that just happens to be the best female skier in the world. She is hugely successful, with four all-around World Cup wins under her belt, not to mention the many, many records she has broken. She is certainly a hero in her own right. She's a hero to me because she has fought through tough times and a career-ending injury that should have stopped her from skiing for a long time. It didn't and that's because of her persistence and drive. She is an inspiring person to all because the odds were stacked against her and yet she beat them.