By Kyle Wagner, Denver Post

Olympic gold medalist and World Cup alpine ski champion Lindsey Vonn said she thinks it’s important for young girls to have “general strength” and be healthy overall, but when it comes to working out and weight-training, moderation is crucial and hard-core weightlifting is unnecessary.

“Push-ups, sit-ups, body-weight squats,” Vonn said, “when they want to and they’re ready.”

Vonn was back home in Vail last weekend to get an MRI on her knee to assess whether she’ll need surgery and to meet with a few of this past season’s participants in the Ski Girls Rock program at Vail Resort that Vonn inspired and designed.

“I love kids,” she said. “They’ve got so much energy and potential.”

Vonn said she wanted to be involved in a program like Ski Girls Rock — which offers ski and snowboard lessons to girls ages 5-15 in groups of no more than four per instructor, with a focus on creating opportunities to bond, build confidence and develop teamwork and social skills — because she thinks that having good role models makes a difference.

One of her idols was fellow World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street, who also was in Vail to help welcome Vonn back.

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