At Laser Crystal, we believe that nothing can beat a good inspirational story of grit and resilience. And in these cold winter days, we thought this was the perfect time to talk about some of our favourite journeys to winter sports trophies and awards. From overcoming injuries to transforming a sport with a new technique, the winter sports athletes on this list have all had incredible careers peppered with personal wins and famous accolades.
Millie Knight
Millie Knight began losing her sight at the age of six. Around the same time, she went on a skiing holiday with her family, where she was encouraged to give it a try. She quickly fell in love with the sport, and despite losing much of her sight by the time she was 12, Knight’s passion for skiing remained strong. She was inspired to dip her toes into the world of competitive skiing a few years later, and as a fresh-faced 13 year old, Knight began training in 2012 with Great Britain’s Paralympic development squad with her mother as her first sighted guide.
At the Europa Cup in spring 2013, Knight raced in the slalom and giant slalom, and in Sochi 2014, at just 15 years old, Knight became the youngest athlete to compete for Great Britain at a Winter Paralympics. In 2017, she suffered a serious crash during a race, leading to a concussion and a fear of downhill skiing. Overcoming the psychological effects of such a traumatic incident required immense mental fortitude. With the help of her guide, Brett Wild, Knight worked hard to regain her confidence and returned to competitive skiing stronger than ever – winning two silver medals and a bronze at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympics.
Hermann Maier
| Hermann Maier pictured during the awards ceremony for the Super G in Hinterstoder, Austria in 2006. Source: Christian Jansky |
Austrian skiing legend Hermann Maier grew up in a family of skiers, but the highs he would eventually reach in his career seemed far-fetched when he was a teenager. He was deemed too small and weak to pursue a professional skiing career, leading the Austrian Ski Federation to drop him from their programme during his youth. He took up work as a bricklayer during the summer months, and in the winter, he’d work at his father’s ski school as an instructor. All the while, he kept training, and his passion for skiing remained strong. He went on to win regional titles in Salzburg and Tyrol – but this still wasn’t enough to get him on the strong Austrian World Cup ski team.
Maier’s breakthrough came relatively late, at age 23, when he impressed Austrian coaches by achieving the 12th fastest time in a World Cup giant slalom in January 1996, where he started as a forerunner, and wasn’t participating in the action competition. But he’d caught the attention of the Austrian Ski Federation, and two days later, he finished in second place in his first Europa Cup race. In his second race, the day after, he came first, and despite not participating in all races, he won the overall title.
In February 96, he finished 26th in his World Cup debut, and a year later, he won his first World Cup event. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Maier gained worldwide fame when he survived a horrifying crash during the downhill event, flying off the course at 75mph. Astonishingly, just a few days later, he won gold medals in the super-G and giant slalom events, cementing his reputation as a skiing legend (and indeed his nickname – the “Herminator”).
In 2001, Maier’s career was nearly ended by a devastating motorcycle accident. He suffered severe leg injuries, including a nearly amputated leg. Many doubted he would ever ski again, let alone compete. However, after extensive rehabilitation and grueling training, Maier made a miraculous comeback.
In 2003, he returned to the World Cup circuit, winning the super-G in Kitzbühel just two years after his accident. His comeback story inspired millions and reinforced his reputation as one of the toughest athletes in sports history. After two Olympic gold medals, three world championship titles and four victories in the overall World Cup, he ended his career in 2009. His journey from a rejected youth skier to a multiple-time Olympic and World Cup champion truly embodies the spirit of determination.
Tina Basich
Tina Basich grew up in a family that encouraged outdoor adventures. Initially interested in skiing, she discovered snowboarding in the early 1980s when the sport was still in its infancy. Enthralled by the freedom and creativity it offered, she began dedicating herself to mastering the craft, paving the way for women to become professional snowboarders like her.
In the 1990s, snowboarding was very much a male-dominated sport, with limited opportunities and recognition for women. Basich became a driving force in changing that narrative. She helped to establish women’s snowboarding as a serious competitive field, advocating for equal prize money and better representation in competitions. Basich even co-founded the first women-specific snowboard brand, “Prom,” which created gear tailored to female riders, filling a significant gap in the market.
Basich’s incredible achievements include being the first woman to successfully land a backside 720 in competition, at the 1998 Winter X Games, which secured her win in the Snowboard Big Air. This set a new standard for women’s snowboarding, which would make its Winter Olympic debut that year.
Basich’s impact doesn’t stop there. She co-authored the book Pretty Good for a Girl: The Autobiography of a Snowboarding Pioneer, where she candidly shared her experiences in the sport, including the challenges she faced as a woman. In 1996, she co-founded the charity Boarding for Breast Cancer and now, as an artist, works to raise awareness for scoliosis, a condition with which her daughter was recently diagnosed.
Jan Boklöv
When you picture a ski jumper, you can imagine them soaring through the air – arms back, chest down, skis pointed outwards in a V. Today, every jumper has this same form – but this wasn’t always the case.
Until the late 80s, ski jumpers solely used the parallel ski position when airborne. It wasn’t until 1985, when Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklöv managed to avoid a serious fall in a training jump by pushing his skis into a V whilst he was in the air, that anyone even considered straying from the parallel style. In the actual competition, Boklöv used his newfound technique – and at one point logged a jump some 20 metres further than his competitors.
Despite his success, the style was initially criticised, and he was consistently deducted style points. But Boklöv persisted, and his resilience paid off in the 1988-89 World Cup season when he became the overall World Cup winner – the first to ever do so using the V-style technique. His success with the technique spoke for itself, and soon, other jumpers and coaches were reconsidering their approach and adopting the style. The ski jumping committee also recognised the effectiveness of the V-style, and it officially replaced the parallel jump technique in 1990.
Jan Boklöv retired from competitive ski jumping in the early 1990s, focusing his efforts instead on coaching. But despite his relatively short competitive career and the fact he never won a major championship medal, Boklöv’s impact on the sport is profound. He remains an iconic figure in ski jumping for this massive contribution to the discipline.
Lindsey Vonn
| Lindsey Vonn (then Kildow) pictured on the slopes in Aspen, 2006. Source: Arthur Mouratidis |
Inspired by her ski instructor grandfather, Lindsey Vonn took up skiing at the age of two, when most toddlers are just beginning to master walking. Vonn’s father was a skier himself, having won a national junior title before having to give it all up due to a knee injury aged 18. Her family recognised her talent early on, and they moved almost 1000 miles from Vonn’s hometown of Burnsville, Minnesota to Vail, Colorado, so she could train more seriously under the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club in the late 90s.
Vonn made her World Cup debut at just 16 years old in November 2000, and her Olympic debut in February 2002 when she was 17. Her first podium place came in 2004 at the World Cup with a third-place finish in the downhill event, and this was followed by a silver medal at the US Alpine Championships a couple of months later. At her second Winter Olympics in 2006, Vonn was on track for a podium place, but suffered a huge crash in the second training run. She was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Turin where she stayed overnight – and she was miraculously back on the slope two days later to compete through the pain to reach eighth place. Her grit and determination to return and finish the race earned her the US Olympic Spirit Award.
Vonn’s career was marked by a series of devastating injuries. She suffered torn ligaments, fractures, and concussions throughout her career, which required multiple surgeries and long periods of rehabilitation. Despite these setbacks, she repeatedly returned to the slopes, demonstrating incredible resilience and mental toughness.
Vonn’s first World Cup title came in 2008, becoming only the second American woman to win the title. This achievement was followed by three more overall World Cup titles in 2009, 2010, and 2012 – included in her total of 82 World Cup victories across all disciplines, including downhill, super-G, slalom, giant slalom, and combined. Vonn holds the record for the most World Cup wins by a female skier, and is second only to Ingemar Stenmark (86 wins) among all skiers, male or female. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, she became the first American woman to win gold in the downhill event, and she also snagged herself a bronze in the super-G.
One of Vonn’s most challenging moments came before the 2014 Sochi Olympics when she had to withdraw due to a severe knee injury. However, she returned to win more World Cup races and even competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, where she earned a bronze medal in downhill shortly before she retired in 2019 after the World Championships. At this event, she became the oldest woman to win a medal at a world championship (aged 34), and the first female racer to receive medals at six different world championships.
In 2024, Vonn announced that she would be coming out of retirement after a successful knee replacement surgery earlier in the year that had stopped the pain that had originally led to her retirement, and she made her return in December in a downhill race at the FIS Fall Festival. When asked why she wanted to come out of retirement, Vonn said: “I love it. I love going fast and I’m still capable of doing it. I know that I’m still competitive. I think I’ve proven already that I’m competitive. So why not?”
Lindsey Vonn is celebrated not just for her accomplishments on the slopes but also for her role in advancing women’s sports. Her resilience, work ethic, and ability to overcome obstacles have made her an inspiration to athletes worldwide.
And one for luck…
Michael “Eddie the Eagle” Edwards
If we’re talking about inspiring winter sports stories, we’ve got to mention Michael Edwards. You may know him as Eddie the Eagle – lovingly portrayed by Taron Egerton in the 2016 film of the same name. He may not have won a winter sports trophy, but his commitment to his motto – ‘it’s the taking part that counts’ – deserves a mention on our list. He fulfilled his childhood dream of representing Team GB in the Olympic Games when he competed as a ski jumper in Calgary 1988. He came dead last in both the normal and large hill events, and on the latter, his two jumps added up to a total of 57.5 metres – just over a quarter of Finnish gold medal winner Matti Nykänen’s combined distance of 224 metres.
Celebrate Every Win With Crystal Awards
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