The 9-year-old girl quarterback is a viral video champion. On Nov. 5, her father posted a video surveying the highlights of her performance in the 2012 season. Days later she became national news. Her father's video shows her breaking away from tackles and making them, taking hits, gaining yards and making touchdown after touchdown. Mostly, we see her being chased down the field, eluding the outstretched hands of the boys trying to bring her to the ground. Her first-ever season as a football player concluded with her landing the cover of a Wheaties cereal box.

She's been on ESPN's "Sports Center," "Monday Night Countdown" and ABC's "Good Morning America." But her best media appearance was on NFL's "GameDay." Instead of entertaining the curiosity of television hosts, she hung out with pro football players. Like a lot of athletes, she is much more relaxed in the company of her tribe.

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This year she set a women's record for most World Cup points scored in a season. In 2010 she became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in Downhill. She's held the World Cup season title in that event five consecutive years, and she's held the overall World Cup season title (which includes Downhill, Super G, and Combined) four out of five years. She is a few years from 30, and has already earned her place as one of the greats.

The World Cup season opens at Lake Louise in November. Vonn has won nine of the 11 events she's entered there. Looking for a new challenge, she wrote to the International Ski Federation and asked if she could race with men. Competitive male athletes with the need for speed look for the fastest race, even if that means they'll lose it. That is how they get faster. That's how they surpass their limits. Men race "up" until they can't.

The fastest women in the world are not supposed to do this. They are supposed to race not against the whole of humanity, but half of it.

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