Lindsey Vonn ‘s defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill at the age of 41, on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a frightening crash that saw her taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.
Vonn lost control within moments of leaving the starting gate, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out soon after medical personnel arrived. She was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line.
She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying simply she would be evaluated.
“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport’s brutal and people need to remember when they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”
Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.
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“I don’t claim to know what she’s going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die,” said Johnson, whose injury in Cortina in 2022 ruined hopes of sking in the Beijing Olympics. “I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through and it’s not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else.”
Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.
Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”
All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She had returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee, too. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.
Still, no one counted her out even then. In truth, she has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.
Cortina has had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.
“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”
News of the crash spread quickly, including to the fan zone down the mountain in Cortina.
“It’s such a huge loss and bummer,” American Megan Gunyou said. “I feel like hearing her story and just like the redemption of her first fall and like fighting to come back to the Olympics this year, I mean, I feel so sad for her.”
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