Athena Capital announces new board, headlined by Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn
Olympic gold-medalist and alpine skiing legend Lindsey Vonn is no stranger to going downhill—but she's soon going to be focused on making investors' wealth climb.
Supersonic air travel gets green light in U.S. after 50-year ban lifted
Why you're catching the 'ick' so easily, according to science
How to Watch George Clooney's Broadway play 'Good Night, and Good Luck' live for free
Vonn is joining the newly formed advisory board at Athena Capital, an all-female venture capital and private equity firm. Isabelle Freidheim, the founder and managing partner of Athena Capital, says that she and Vonn have been acquainted for some time, as Freidheim had been involved with the U.S. Olympic Committee, and had met with her at numerous conferences over the years.
'I was always impressed with how genuine she is,' Freidheim says of Vonn. Accordingly, 'Bringing someone like Lindsey in, who is like-minded and mission-aligned, brings more enthusiasm to the firm.' As such, 'we're very excited to announce her joining our board.'
Vonn is an active investor and businesswoman, but is best known for her exploits on the slopes, which include three Olympic medals, eight World Championships, and more. She is also planning a comeback for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Cortina, Italy. The comeback is notable as Vonn, now 40 years old, has recovered from a partial knee replacement as well. So, in addition to her board duties, she'll be giving the Olympics one last shot, but she's confident she can balance the two.
'Athena's mission is something that deeply resonates with me, so I was excited to get on board. When I commit to something, I do everything in my power to approach it to the absolute best of my ability. Even though the next year will be busy, I feel strongly about my role as a board member just as I do about my athletic career,' Vonn tells Fast Company.
'Competitive skiing is all about operating under pressure and being precise with your every move. It requires extensive knowledge and training to be successful in the sport. That's very similar to what venture capitalists do: evaluating potential, taking calculated risks, and trying to stay on top of everything you're doing. Both require a sharpness and tenacity, and I think a similar competitive mindset exists between the two.'
With her interest and experience in the investment space, Freidheim says that having Vonn join the board made sense. 'Lindsey's been an investor for quite some time already, and is pretty astute. She has a high profile,' she says.
Freidheim says that other members of the board will be announced one by one, on an ongoing basis.
In the meantime, Vonn will focus on skiing—and trying to make some noise on the slopes in addition to the boardroom.
'I felt better skiing this past season than I did at the end of my career, and I am without pain for the first time in years,' she says. 'When I retired in 2019, it was of necessity. My body was broken beyond repair, so I knew it was a choice I had to make, but it wasn't fully on my terms. Competing in another Olympics in Cortina would feel full-circle.'
This post originally appeared at fastcompany.comSubscribe to get the Fast Company newsletter: http://fastcompany.com/newsletters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
12 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Fed's Waller Suggests Central Bank Could Cut Rates in July
Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said the central bank could be positioned to cut interest rates at its July meeting, notwithstanding potential inflation pressures from tariffs. 'I think we've got room to bring it down, and then we can kind of see what happens with inflation,' Waller told CNBC, saying the Fed should "look through" one-time price rises fueled by levies. 🔎 Read more:
Bloomberg
12 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Darden Weighs Sale of Bahama Breeze Restaurant Chain
Darden Restaurants Inc. is considering 'strategic alternatives' for its Bahama Breeze chain, Chief Executive Officer Rick Cardenas said. Potential plans for the chain include selling the brand or converting the restaurants to other Darden brands, Cardenas said on an earnings call Friday.
New York Times
12 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why Ferrari can't win in F1, but it can win Le Mans. Plus, Robert Kubica praise
Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic's twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday. Welcome back to Prime Tire, where I still don't know what Lando Norris was thinking in going left and not right against Oscar Piastri late in the Canadian Grand Prix. But the other big story from Montreal concerned Ferrari. Specifically, team boss Fred Vasseur's reaction to critical reporting of La Scuderia in Italian media after Ferrari's poor performances so far this year. Then, its World Endurance Championship Hypercar won the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours, and everyone started thinking the same thing… I'm Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later, but first, we hear from one of our valued readers. The F1 roots in Ferrari's Le Mans success 'I hope you are going to do a longer piece on this, but what's with Ferrari? If they can put together a winning program in WEC, etc…' Well, to the anonymous but still cherished reader who replied with the above to our mailbag call out for questions last weekend, thank you for the query, and I hope I can do it justice in reply. The answer is: Not really, but it cannot be denied that the Ferrari 499P's third successive victory at Le Mans essentially all came down to the WEC's Balance of Performance technical rules. These are intended to create performance parity between the eight manufacturers that compete for glory in the category's top class. This is the equivalent of the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class in the IMSA SportsCar Championship stateside. Advertisement The Porsche Penske 963 car that finished second by only 14.1 seconds last Sunday had pretty much a perfect 24-hour race — as explained here on The Race's dedicated 2025 Le Mans podcast — and all three Ferraris that surrounded it hit issues. Many were self-inflicted. That the 499P topped the speed traps on an 8.47-mile track with three massive straights, despite there being a dedicated Le Mans BOP to balance top speeds for each car above 155mph, played a big part in a Porsche defeat that should've been greater. The consensus from observers is that the Le Mans-specific BOP failed in 2025. Ferrari has now won all four of 2025's WEC races to this point and dominates both the drivers' and manufacturers' standings. Oh, how Fred Vasseur's squad must envy such positions. And Ferrari's F1 team came into 2025 on a high. After scoring its highest win total for six years last season, it had a little-known seven-time world champion named LEWIS HAMILTON onboard for the first time. But its SF-25 car has been a clear step backwards, and although Ferrari is not far off second in the 2025 constructors' standings right now, it hasn't looked like doing a Mercedes and snatching a win off the McLarens/Max Verstappen battle at the front. Here's why: Vasseur also bizarrely claimed, 'It's not like this that we'll be able to win a championship… at least not with this kind of journalist around us.' Let me tell you, if journos have the reins of an F1 technical department that will make for absolutely spiffing headlines, but not good cars… An upgrade for Ferrari's ride height issue is expected to be unleashed across the coming Austrian and British races. Mercedes has shown how, in Canada, with the field so close, even as McLaren dominates, it doesn't take much for a team's results to be transformed. No pressure then, Fred… Now, and apologies to the TL;DR crowd, but here's why the Ferrari WEC car has proved to be so successful, even the quasi-privateer squad AF Corse could take overall Le Mans glory in 2025: Here ends my TED Talk, but we're not leaving the sports car realm just yet. What a day last Sunday was for Williams' 2019 F1 driver line-up. Not only did George Russell win the Canadian GP, but his teammate that year, Robert Kubica, led AF Corse's Le Mans triumph. That's no exaggeration — he completed 43% of his car's laps, 387 for a three-driver crew. Kubica will need no introduction to seasoned motorsport fans, but just in case it's handy, here's his career summary. Kubica's rally crash not only nearly killed him, but it also stopped him from completing a mooted Ferrari F1 deal to race alongside Fernando Alonso back in 2012. Dark days and many surgeries followed. His grit and perseverance deserve all the applause. Congrats, Robert. Now here's what the F1 paddock had to say about his Le Mans win. The last time I spoke to Robert Kubica was at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He'd spent the season as Sauber's reserve driver, but was starting to dip his toe further into sports car racing, having made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut that year in the LMP2 class. He was somewhat noncommittal when discussing F1 (his main backer was heading to AlphaTauri), but when I started talking about sports cars, he lit up. The debate over the future of Le Mans and its chances of racing in the Hypercar category one day took up the majority of the interview. I even got a compliment (rare for racing drivers!) about how much he enjoyed the chat at the end. Advertisement So, to see Kubica now an outright Le Mans victor, in a Ferrari, filled me with joy — and the rest of the F1 paddock too. Both before and after the race finished at 10 am in Montreal, people couldn't help but share their delight over the result. To this day, Kubica's determination and speed command such respect in the F1 world. 'I'm very happy for him,' said Fernando Alonso, himself a double Le Mans winner. 'We talked a few times about how special that race is, and he deserves to experience that. He's a legend of our sport. And now he is even more after winning Le Mans in his career. (After) some of the pain that he went through with the accident and things like that, I think, today is a very happy day for motorsport.' Vasseur called Kubica 'extraterrestrial' for what he'd achieved at Le Mans. 'What he's doing is mega, and to win in Le Mans in this situation and to be the leader of the car, it's something that I can't imagine,' Vasseur added. 'I'm very pleased for Robert. He had a chaotic career in motorsport, and when you see the level of effort that he put into his career, I'm pleased for him to have this kind of result.' Kubica may never have gotten the F1 career or success he deserved, but Sunday was a firm reminder of just how fondly he is thought of within our paddock. 🎲 Daniel Ricciardo's life outside F1 took an… interesting turn yesterday when it was announced he's done a deal with a betting company. The reaction from fans on his Instagram page was so bad that the eight-time grand prix winner had to limit comments. Grim. 🍿 Luke and Madeline Coleman reviewed 'F1: The Movie' ahead of its release next week. SPOILERS INCLUDED, SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO SHOUT THAT JUST IN CASE, YOU'RE WELCOME. 🏎 Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the 2005 United States Grand Prix, which featured six cars and beer being chucked towards eventual winner Michael Schumacher of Ferrari. How far F1 has come in the USA since that farcical day, which, for some baffling reason, isn't in F1's extended race highlights archive on YouTube… 📫 Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
