“It will be a very difficult challenge to find a reasonable way of doing this,” Skaardal said in an interview published last week by FIS.

“One point that everyone is underestimating, is that we need to have equal rights for everyone. So if the ladies are allowed to race with the men, then also the men need to be authorized to ski with the ladies.”

“And I’m not sure this is a direction we want to go” said Skaardal. “I see it as a very difficult topic.”

“We have talked about it here in the meetings and I’m confident that everyone will think this through during the summer and then we’ll see if the U.S. Ski Association brings a concrete proposal of how this is supposed to be done to fit into the rules.”

Hope might not be lost however, Vonn petitioned to compete against the men in 2012 at , now this year U.S. alpine director Patrick Riml responded by saying he would lobby the FIS to bend the rules to let her compete against her male counterparts.

If Vonn is successful in her aim and defeats the men on the FIS alpine course before she retires, she could change the sport entirely for those that follow her.