Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn declines to say if she’d accept White House invitation after 2017 refusal

U.S. Olympic gold medalist alpine skier Lindsey Vonn said in a 2017 interview that if she were invited to President Donald Trump’s White House, she would decline the invitation. But in 2025, she wasn’t as quick to declare her refusal. 

Fox News Digital asked Vonn if she would accept a White House invitation after the upcoming Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Media Summit on Tuesday. 

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“First of all, I just want to say that every Olympic athlete from Team USA is normally invited… it has nothing to do with if you win a medal or not,” Vonn said. 

“I’m not going to answer that question because, I’m just not going to answer it. I want to keep my passport,” she added. 

Vonn declared her initial refusal to visit the White House in December 2017, just ahead of the 2018 Pyeonchang Winter Olympics. 

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This file photo shows Lindsey Vonn at a news conference regarding her future at the Sochi Olympics, the World Cup season and 2015 World Championships at Gold Peak, Vail, Colo.  (AP/File)

“Absolutely not,” Vonn said when asked if she would go, during the 2017 CNN interview. “No. But I have to win to be invited. No, actually, I think every U.S. team member is invited, so no, I won’t go.” 

Vonn went on to suggest that she did not want to represent the president. 

“Well, I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,” Vonn said at the time. “I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony. I want to represent our country well. I don’t think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”

Vonn, 41, came out of a five-year retirement last year, and broke the record for oldest Alpine skiing World Cup podium finisher. 

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Lindsey Vonn of USA wins the bronze medal during the Alpine Skiing Women’s Downhill at Jeongseon Alpine Centre on Feb. 21, 2018, in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.  (Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)

Now, she is looking to get back to the Olympics in February. 

Vonn is expected to race for the first time this World Cup season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, starting Dec. 12.

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