Ski Champ Lindsey Vonn Suffers Season-Ending Knee Injury
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Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images(SCHLADMING, Austria) — Gold medalist skier Lindsey Vonn crashed during the FIS Alpine Ski World Championship Super-G race in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday and suffered a season-ending injury to her right knee.
The World Cup champion from Vail, Colo., lost balance on her right leg after coming around a turn and trying to stick a landing after a jump. Her right ski came off immediately, and Vonn slid down the race course for several feet on her back before hitting a gate and coming to a stop.
According to U.S. Ski Team Medical Director Kyle Wilkens, the 28-year-old competitive skier tore the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament of her right knee, and suffered a lateral tibial plateau fracture.
“She will be out for the remainder of this season but is expected to return to racing for the 2013-14 Audi FIS World Cup season and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia,” Wilkens said in a statement.
Vonn had posted the fastest first interval and was having a strong run when she went down. She was immediately attended to by race medical officials and then taken to the hospital by helicopter, as is standard protocol, according to a statement from the U.S. Ski Team.
Vonn is a highly decorated skiing star. With 59 World Cup victories under her belt, Vonn is one of only five women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of Alpine skiing — downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined.
Expected to make a huge appearance at the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Vonn previously took home a gold medal for downhill skiing and the bronze for the Super-G race at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Vonn started racing again in January after missing a few weeks of the season.
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