Lindsey Vonn crashes in the final, bringing Olympic downhill fairy tale to an end
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Dana O’Neil and Ben Church, CNN
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (CNN) — Lindsey Vonn crashed in her run on Sunday, bringing her Olympic downhill dream to an end after coming into the Games with a “completely ruptured” ACL.
The American burst out of the start in the final but caught a gate with her right arm after just 13 seconds, sending her tumbling down the slope to a halt.
Total silence then fell across the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, as medics attended to the three-time Olympic medalist.
The 41-year-old was then airlifted off the course as the crowd stood to applaud her.
After a lengthy pause in the women’s downhill event, proceedings eventually got underway. Concern now turns to how seriously Vonn has hurt herself.
“Lindsey Vonn fell in the Olympic downhill and will be evaluated by medical staff,” the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team said in a short statement on social media.
Always a risk
It was always going to be a risk for Vonn to compete at this year’s Games after she suffered such a serious injury in a crash in Crans-Montana on the World Cup circuit on Jan. 30.
She had completed two training runs ahead of the final, though, and seemed to believe she could still compete at the highest level.
“I will race tomorrow in my final Olympic Downhill and while I can’t guarantee a good result, I can guarantee I will give it everything I have,” she wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“But no matter what, I have already won.”
Some of her fellow athletes looked emotional after watching the crash on Sunday, worried about the damage Vonn might have sustained.
“We all know the difficulties that Lindsey was going through these last days and to come to the race I think she just leveled up too much and risked too much and that’s why this kind of crash can happen,” retired Slovenian skier and two-time Olympic gold medalist Tina Maze told Eurosport.
“It’s really tough for everyone here to see this and especially for her family, her teammates and everyone working with her. It’s terrible for everyone.”
Vonn’s sister Karin Kildow told NBC that the crash was scary to see and that the skiing legend was being evaluated. She also said Vonn would have no regrets about her decision to compete.
“She always goes 110%, there’s never anything less, so I know she put her whole heart into it and sometimes, just like things happen,” Kildow said.
“It’s a very dangerous sport and there’s a lot of variables at play, so I don’t really know exactly what happened, but it did look like a pretty rough fall, so we’re just hoping for the best.”
This story may be updated.
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