Vonn was airlifted off the course on Sunday after another crash in a downhill race. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Lindsey Vonn crashed badly in the Olympic downhill race on Sunday and was taken off the course via helicopter. Her injury comes just days after another crash during a World Cup race that saw her airlifted to a nearby hospital with a ruptured ACL in her left knee.
“I crashed today in the downhill race in Switzerland and injured my left knee,” Vonn wrote on social media on January 30. “I am discussing the situation with my doctors and team and will continue to undergo further exams. This is a very difficult outcome one week before the Olympics… but if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s a comeback. My Olympic dream is not over.”
Unfortunately, however, her most recent injury appears to be the end of her Olympic run. The 41-year-old lost control early in her race, hooking the fourth gate with her right arm and spinning out of control in the air. She landed sideways, bounced and spun again, landing on her head and sliding down the hill. When she finally came to a halt, her agonized wails echoed through the crowd. The spectators were silent as the medics worked on her for almost 15 minutes before she was loaded onto a guerney and into helicopter to be flown to hospital.
“I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through,” said Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate. “And it’s not the physical pain. We can deal with physical pain, but the emotional pain is something else. I wish her the best and I hope that this isn’t the end.”
Vonn’s journey to the Games this year was an incredible one. She returned last year after a six-year hiatus. The years of hard racing have taken a toll on her body — her right knee is partially rebuilt with titanuim and as mentioned, her left knee was previously injured as well — but despite it all, she was fighting for another Gold medal. Vonn has won World Cups in downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and slalom and has three Olympic medals on her mantel, as well as four overall World Cup titles. Despite her injuries, her history made her a real contender in the Olympics, but the crash in January put that in doubt.
After her Olympic crash on Sunday, the U.S. Ski Team issued a statement that said Vonn had “sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”
As of this writing, there haven’t been any updates on her condition. Breezy Johnson didn’t lose focus after Vonn’s injury and flew to the top of the podium with a run of one minute 36.1 seconds. That made her the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill. The first was Lindsey Vonn.
“That definitely was the last thing we wanted to see,” Vonn’s sister Karin Kildow told NBC after the crash. “She always goes 110 per cent, there’s never anything less, so I know she put her whole heart into it and sometimes things happen. It’s a very dangerous sport.”
While Vonn’s future in ski racing is up in the air for now, she’s already shown that she can come back from seemingly impossible odds. We’re wishing Vonn a quick recovery.
