American ski star Lindsey Vonn accomplished her second coaching run for the Milan-Cortina Olympics ladies’s downhill regardless of a severe knee damage. Picture: AFP
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO:
Lindsey Vonn’s Winter Olympic dream led to screams of ache on Sunday after she crashed out of the ladies’s downhill gained by her American teammate Breezy Johnson.
The American star had been attempting to say the fourth Olympic medal of her profession regardless of struggling a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee simply over per week in the past, however her race ended after simply 13 seconds in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
She cried in anguish and ache after her violent crash excessive up the course, medical employees rapidly surrounding the distraught 41-year-old on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste the place has loved a lot success previously.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion hit the agency snow face first quickly after pushing off from the gate.
She then rolled down the slope along with her skis nonetheless hooked up, which might probably trigger additional severe harm to her knee.
Vonn’s Olympic dream now lies in tatters after her audacious bid to realize the seemingly unattainable, an try which ended along with her being taken away in a helicopter as followers within the stands saluted her with loud applause.
Johan Eliasch, the president of the Worldwide Ski Federation (FIS) who was watching the race in Cortina, mentioned Vonn’s crash was “tragic, nevertheless it’s ski racing I am afraid”.
“And I can solely say thanks for what she has executed for our sport as a result of this race has been the speak of the Video games and it is put our sport in the very best gentle.”
Eliasch added: “I hope she can have a speedy restoration and again on skis very, very quickly.
“Lots of people are going to say she should not have been racing at present (with) that kind of damage. It is clearly her determination.”
Johnson, who was already within the chief’s chair after her aggressive run down the slope, held her face in shock after Vonn’s crash, which utterly modified the complexion of the race.
Already the reigning world downhill champion, Johnson completed in entrance of Germany’s Emma Aicher by simply 0.04s with Italy’s pace specialist Sofia Goggia taking bronze in entrance of house followers.
Snowboarding icon
Goggia had a protracted look forward to her run as she was two down the listing from Vonn and he or she was hampered by the blazing sunshine which softened the beforehand agency snow on her favorite piste.
However Johnson’s win was overshadowed by considered one of world sport’s most recognisable faces probably ending her Olympic profession in tragic trend.
Vonn had insisted that she couldn’t solely compete however win in opposition to the world’s greatest ladies skiers, a few of whom like Aicher are practically half her age.
Vonn mentioned forward of the Video games that she was planning on additionally competing within the group mixed occasion on Tuesday and the super-G two days later.
However that now appears unlikely, a possible lengthy lay-off maybe heralding the top of her comeback to snowboarding in her early 40s.
Vonn retired in 2019 however returned to competitors in November 2024 following surgical procedure to partially change her proper knee to finish persistent ache.
Had she not crashed within the final World Cup downhill forward of the Olympics, in Crans Montana on the finish of January, Vonn would have been a severe contender for gold in Cortina.
Vonn had completed on the rostrum in each earlier World Cup downhill race this season, together with two victories in St. Moritz and Zauchensee, and claimed two extra top-three finishes within the super-G.
However retirement looms for Vonn following a disastrous finish to one of many largest tales of the Winter Olympics.
