$5 million prize money at the US Open leads Lindsey Vonn to side-eye ski racing 

Lindsey Vonn reacted to the massive prize purse offered to the winner of the US Open. The winner of men's and women's singles of the last Grand Slam of the year receives $5 million in prize money, and the runner-up of the tournament takes home $2.5 million.

Vonn was recently training in Chile as she continued her pursuits towards her goal of making an appearance at the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2026. Amid her training sessions, Lindsey Vonn made a quick stop in New York to watch the men's singles finals at the US Open.

The American skies shared glimpses of her appearance at the Arthur Ashe stadium on her official social media handles and cheered for Jannik Sinner as he competed against Carlos Alcaraz for the ultimate title. Alcaraz put forward a dominant performance to win his sixth Grand Slam title in four sets with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

As the world congratulated the Spaniard for his incredible achievement, a statistic about the prize money offered at the US Open was widely discussed among fans on social media. Lindsey Vonn shared a hilarious take as she compared the prize money offered in ski racing.

"It’d be cool if we won 5 mil for a ski race. Just a thought 💭" she wrote.

lindsey vonn

@lindseyvonn

It’d be cool if we won 5 mil for a ski race. Just a thought 💭

Fans expressed the reasons for the pay gap in skiing and tennis in her comment section. Lindsey Vonn acknowledged that the revenue brought by skiing is not as much as tennis, which eventually reflected in the prize purse offered to athletes.

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When Lindsey Vonn opened up about the pay gap in skiing

Vonn Celebrates 20 Years with Red Bull in Los Angeles - Source: Getty

Lindsey Vonn once opened up about the pay gap in skiing in an interview with CNBC back in 2018. According to the American skier, if a skier is not in the top 10 in the world, then they would be struggling financially if they did not have a second job.

Even though their contracts were confidential, Vonn shared that she knew about the rough figures that athletes would make and shared that the pay gap was pretty severe.

“If you are not in the top five or 10 in the world, you are struggling to not have to get a second job. All of our contracts are confidential, but I roughly know how much the men make and how much the women make. It is a pretty severe gap," she said.

Vonn shared that she wanted to bring in more female skiers in the circuit and help to bridge the pay gap while creating a long-lasting impact on the sport.