Lindsey Vonn Spends Thanksgiving Skiing, Returns to Slopes Nine Days After Training Crash

Olympic athlete was hopeful she would be back on the slopes shortly

Lindsey Vonn is back on the slopes!

The athlete returned to skiing on Thanksgiving for the first time since sustaining injuries during a training run at Copper Mountain in Colorado.

The 29-year-old shared a picture on her Facebook page and wrote, "First day back on snow since my crash and it was awesome!"

She added, "I'm very thankful for many things this year (family, loved ones, great fans) but at this moment I'm happy to be on the mountain doing what I love—skiing! Happy thanksgiving everyone!"

She also thanked the managers at the mountain park for opening up the lifts extra early just for her. How nice!

Tiger Woods' girlfriend appeared on Today Wednesday, Nov. 27, telling Matt Lauer that she's "hopeful" she'll "be racing next week." But, the athlete admitted honestly, she "really doesn't know yet" if her partially-torn ACL can withstand hitting the slopes —or  in February 2014 at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

"If [things don't go well] I'm going to have to reassess," she said. "I'm feeling good from rehab—I feel stable, and I've put some weight [on my knee].  It felt really good. I'm very hopeful, but I really don't know until I get on snow."

Vonn explained, "There definitely is a long ways to go there, but I'm confident it's going to be ok. At this point that's all I can do is stay positive."

We're happy to hear she's recovering swiftly!