If you needed a reminder that the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy are just weeks away, two of America’s (and the world’s) most decorated winter sports athletes of all time set dueling Alpine Ski World Cup records this past week—and they celebrated with giant slalom–size bottles of sparkling wine.
In St. Moritz, France, the Lindsey Vonn comeback tour hit a new gear when she won her first World Cup downhill since retiring in 2019. It's Vonn’s 83rd career win, and at age 41, she also became the oldest person ever to win a World Cup event.
It’s well-reported that Vonn’s career was plagued by knee injuries, and she had her knee replaced in April 2024, making her comeback all the more remarkable, but longtime Unfiltered readers will recall that Vonn also suffered serious injury in 2009 when she and some fellow athletes “opened” some sparkling wine with a ski, and Vonn cut a tendon in her thumb on the Champagne bottle’s broken neck. (And the following year we spotted Vonn treating a shin bruise with cheese.)
So it is with those tough memories in mind that we are tremendously pleased to report that Vonn successfully celebrated her win in St. Moritz with a very large format bottle of Ferrari Trento Italian sparkling wine.
“We are delighted to have marked this unforgettable moment in sports history with a Ferrari toast,” said Ferrari Trento president and CEO Matteo Lunelli. “Ours with Lindsey Vonn is a longstanding friendship, born on the snow of Cortina, where she celebrated many of her victories with our sparkling wines, and nurtured on various other occasions—both sporting and beyond—such as the Emmy Awards, Formula 1 Grand Prix, and initiatives of her foundation. Her return to victory is a tribute to perseverance and passion.”
Not to be overshadowed, the active leader in career World Cup wins, American Mikaela Shifrin, turned in her record 105th career win at the World Cup event in Courchevel, French Alps, just a few days after Vonn’s celebration in St. Moritz. It was 30-year-old slalom-specialist Shifrin’s fifth straight win, and afterward she hoisted any equally large bottle of sparkling wine: a gleaming jeroboam of Champagne Devaux Brut Rosé Champagne Cuvée D personalized by artist David Cintract.
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