Lindsey Vonn‘s defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill on the age of 41, on a rebuilt proper knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a daunting crash that noticed her taken to security by a rescue helicopter for the second time in 9 days.
Vonn misplaced management inside moments of leaving the beginning gate, clipping a gate along with her proper shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope earlier than ending up awkwardly on her again, her skis crisscrossed under her and her screams ringing out quickly after medical personnel arrived. She was handled for lengthy, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the group ready far under on the end line.
She was strapped to a gurney and flown away, presumably ending the skier’s storied profession. Her situation was not instantly identified, with the U.S. Ski Workforce saying merely she can be evaluated.
“She’ll be OK, nevertheless it’s going to be a little bit of a course of,” mentioned Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport’s brutal and other people want to recollect once they’re watching (that) these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going actually, actually quick.”
Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, grew to become solely the second American lady to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years in the past. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the workforce.
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“I don’t declare to know what she’s going via, however I do know what it’s to be right here, to be preventing for the Olympics, and to have this course burn you and to observe these desires die,” mentioned Johnson, whose harm in Cortina in 2022 ruined hopes of sking within the Beijing Olympics. “I can’t think about the ache that she’s going via and it’s not the bodily ache — we are able to take care of bodily ache — however the emotional ache is one thing else.”
Vonn had household within the stands, together with her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down on the floor whereas his daughter was being handled after simply 13 seconds on the course the place she holds a file 12 World Cup titles. Others within the crowd, together with rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly because the star skier was lastly taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a damaged coronary heart emoji on social media.
Vonn’s crash was “tragic, nevertheless it’s ski racing,” mentioned Johan Eliasch, president of the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation.
“I can solely say thanks for what she has accomplished for our sport,” he mentioned, “as a result of this race has been the speak of the video games and it’s put our sport in the absolute best gentle.”
All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She had returned to elite ski racing final season after almost six years, a outstanding choice given her age however she additionally had a partial titanium knee substitute in her proper knee, too. Many questioned how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to affix the one she gained within the downhill on the 2010 Vancouver Video games.
The four-time general World Cup champion shocked everybody by being a contender virtually instantly. She got here to the Olympics because the chief within the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favourite earlier than her crash in Switzerland 9 days in the past, when she suffered her newest knee harm. Along with a ruptured ACL, she additionally had a bone bruise and meniscus injury.
Nonetheless, nobody counted her out even then. In fact, she has skied via accidents for 3 a long time on the high of the game. In 2006, forward of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a foul fall throughout downhill coaching and went to the hospital. She competed lower than 48 hours later, racing in all 4 occasions she’d deliberate, with a high results of seventh within the super-G.
Cortina has had many treasured recollections for Vonn past the file wins. She is known as the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had all the time suited Vonn. She examined out the knee twice in downill coaching runs over the previous three days earlier than the terrible crash on Sunday in clear, sunny situations.
“This could be the very best comeback I’ve accomplished to this point,” Vonn mentioned earlier than the race. “Undoubtedly probably the most dramatic.”
Information of the crash unfold shortly, together with to the fan zone down the mountain in Cortina.
“It’s such an enormous loss and bummer,” American Megan Gunyou mentioned. “I really feel like listening to her story and similar to the redemption of her first fall and like preventing to return again to the Olympics this yr, I imply, I really feel so unhappy for her.”
© 2026 The Canadian Press
