After several days In snowy and cloudy weather, the sun shone over the dramatic mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo as it came time for the big talking point in the run-up to the Winter Olympics.
The women’s steeplechase would ultimately be decided after a fight that was dominated by the fact that world star Lindey Vonn would compete despite her cruciate ligament injury.
“There couldn’t be better conditions for downhill skiing,” said SVT expert Pernilla Wiberg before the competition, simultaneously pointing Vonn to the podium.
As the 13th rider, Vonn set out on the downhill course. In the first sharp right-hand bend of the track, where the weight landed on his left leg, Vonn lost his balance in the air and fell. After 13 seconds the race was over for the world star.
SVT expert Pernilla Wiberg had tears in her eyes and commentator Johan Ejeborg explained that the crash may have been the last we would see of Vonn in a competitive context.
After the accident, Vonn lay writhing and writhing in pain. Her screams were heard on television and after a while she was taken away by helicopter, just like when she injured her cruciate ligament in Crans-Montana just over a week before the Olympic race.
– Tragic. “Very sad to see,” FIS President Johan Eliasch tells DN about Vonn’s case and continues:
– She is now in the hospital and is receiving the best possible care. Now we wish her a speedy recovery.
Lindsey Vonn put her skis on the shelf after the World Cup in Åre 2019 and said that her body could no longer be repaired after all the falls and injuries. It was wrong.
In 2024, she had knee surgeon Martin Roche operate on a titanium prosthesis in her right knee.
The pain disappeared. Just a few months after the operation, she was back on skis and announced her comeback in the World Cup in November of the same year.
The comeback resulted in a 14th place finish in the Super-G and Vonn continued to refine the technique with the help of her Norwegian friend and racing colleague Aksel Lund Svindal.
On December 12th last year she was back at the top of the podium in the World Cup when she won the downhill race in St. Moritz. A month later, she repeated the feat in Zauchensee and suddenly became the favorite to win another Olympic gold in the downhill, 16 years after her victory in Vancouver.
But then the crash came at the Olympic general rope race in Crans-Montana last Friday. Vonn was flown by helicopter to the hospital and X-rays showed that the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee was torn.
She kept the extent of the damage secret from the public until a press conference on Tuesday in Cortina.
A buzz went through the room as Vonn announced that her ACL had been torn and, after a brief pause, explained that she still had the goal of running the downhill on Sunday.
Despite the injury, Vonn hoped for a miracle – and set the third best time in the last training session before the competition.
When the time came, expectations were high, but it was a sad fall in what may have been Vonn’s last downhill race. The atmosphere in the finish area was subdued after the accident and Breezy Johnson, who was in the driver’s seat, was filmed with tears in his eyes.
As soon as Vonn was transported off the track, the race started again. But when Cande Moreno from Andorra with starting number 26 also crashed, the competition was interrupted again. Moreno also needed helicopter transport and, at the time of writing, left the snow on the downhill slope.
The text is updated.
