Vonn is one of the first two female skiers to win four overall World cup Championships, with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. She has also won six consecutive World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008–2013), four consecutive titles in Super G (2009–2012), and three consecutive titles in the combined (2010–2012).

Vonn is one of a few women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined – and has won 59 World Cup races in her career through the end of the 2013 Alpine Skiing World Cup. Vonn received the Laureus World Sports Awards Sportswoman of the Year for 2010. She was also honored again as the USOC's sportswoman of the year for 2010.