In March 2024, French alpine racer Matthieu Bailet posted a snapshot from Saalbach-Hinterglemm and wrote that he had the honor of seeing the great champion. He had just missed racing there. The photo with Lindsey Vonn read like a World Cup crossing of paths: a speed skier from Nice, happy to stand next to the most decorated woman in the sport.
Two and a half years later, the same two athletes are no longer posing as admirer and legend. They are a couple.
Vonn, 41, made the relationship public on September 23, 2026, with an Instagram summer recap captioned, “About that time for a summer recap… pt 1.” The carousel, set to Olivia Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall in Love),” included a kiss in a pool, Bailet holding her waist on a rock in the sea, and the pair stretched out in a hammock over the water. Bailet, 30, replied in the comments, “Can’t wait to see the summer recap part 2.” Vonn answered with a kiss emoji and a red heart. Tennis player Sloane Stephens called the post what it was: a hard launch.
The confirmation ended months of quieter sightings. In May, People reported that the pair were “getting to know each other” after they were photographed in New York, shopping in SoHo, riding the subway, and posing backstage at the Broadway musical The Outsiders on May 10. Neither had confirmed a relationship at the time. By late September, the vacation photos left little room for another reading.
Bailet is a World Cup regular who specializes in downhill and super-G, the same speed events that built Vonn’s career. He made his World Cup debut in 2016, won junior world gold in super-G that year, finished second in the Saalbach super-G in 2021, and raced for France at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The relationship is Vonn’s first public romance since she confirmed her split from businessman Diego Osorio in February 2025.
What began as a polite photo on the World Cup calendar is now an official relationship, announced not with a statement but with a kiss in a pool and a caption that turned the rumor into the record.
