Lindsey Vonn: Tiger's "a better skier than I am a golfer"
Clocking in at speeds of more than 80 mph on the slopes, skier Lindsey Vonn doesn't have to worry about boyfriend Tiger Woods catching up to her game. The two champions occupy different playing fields, but their ambitions couldn't be more similar.
Vonn said "80 percent" of their conversations are about competition and winning.
"We compete at everything," Vonn said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." "Even if we're not talking about golf or skiing, we are playing ping-pong and pool and whatever we can do to compete."
However, Vonn admitted, "I think he's a better skier than I am a golfer."
The sports power couple confirmed they were dating in March 2013 after meeting at Tiger Jam, Woods' annual charity event in Las Vegas. Vonn said while people were surprised when she told them they were dating, her family loves him.
"He talks to my mom all the time and he's texting my dad when I'm racing," she said.
On the slopes, she holds the most World Cup titles of any woman in history and her golf game may not be too shabby either. Vonn said she doesn't have a handicap, but boasts a hole-in-one -- though when it happened, not everyone was as excited as she.
"People want to kill me," she said. "It was my first round of 18 holes. It was for a charity, and I was on a team and we were doing a scramble and my teammates were half excited and half hated me because they were probably like 45 years old and probably never got a hole-in-one and played for 20 years."
Now, Vonn has more than 18 reasons to celebrate. This season's World Cup earned her her 19th Cyrstal Globe.
But that record-breaking comeback in France followed a pair of major knee injuries in 2013.
"I felt like a lot of people thought that I would never come back and actually told me to my face I'd never come back and, I don't know, I just proved to myself that I could do it," Vonn said. "It was a long road, but I never gave up."
Her decision to miss the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, just one month before opening ceremonies, set her on a course to rehab with one goal in mind -- Pyeongchang 2018.
"My next big goal is the Olympics, especially since I wasn't able to go to Sochi, I decided really to commit myself," she said.
Following those injuries, Vonn said she was, of course, worried, but determination drove her through recovery. Vonn shows no signs of slowing down, and that's just how she likes it: "I love going fast; It's something that's inside me."
"Just because I'm injured, I don't feel any different. I'm the same skier, the same person. I think that's why I'm able to continue winning, because I'm just not afraid," she said.
Vonn earned her first World Cup win more than a decade ago, in 2004. Eleven years later, she holds the women's all-time World Cup wins record with a modest 67. Her continued success makes her one of the greatest female skiers ever.
"It's kind of like a high-speed chess match, where you know what you have to do, but you also have to make adjustments on the fly. So I think for me, I visualize the course 100 times before I go down it. I know every bump, every roll, every gate and I know what to do and where I can make up time if I make a mistake," Vonn said.
What makes Vonn's skin crawl? Watch the video in the player above to find out.