Vonn did what she set out to do — race the Olympic downhill, but she crashed in Sunday’s run and will not medal. Her status is unclear. Christophe Pallot / Agence Zoom / Getty Images
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn said she would make it to the Olympic downhill starting gate despite rupturing the most important ligament in her knee nine days ago, and she did.
But Vonn’s dream of reclaiming the downhill gold medal Sunday ended in disappointment, as the greatest speed skier in the sport’s history crashed on the famed Olympia delle Tofane slope at the Winter Olympics. Vonn started 13th, and there were still 23 racers left to go after her crash. American Breezy Johnson was leading the race, as of this writing.
She remained down on the snow for several minutes as she was attended to by medical personnel. Her status is unclear.
Even making it to the starting game was a pretty astounding result given that it came a little more than a week after she ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee in one of her final races before the Olympics. The injury appeared to dash Vonn’s hopes of becoming the oldest person to win an Olympic medal in Alpine before even getting to Cortina.
But with a combination of determination, strength and guts, Vonn manifested enough health and stability out of her left knee to try, brushing off an injury that sidelines most athletes for the better part of a year. Vonn is not “most athletes.” At 41, she is an irrepressible force obsessed with both speed and skiing who loves nothing more than flying down a steep sheet of ice at 80 mph on that edge of recklessness and sanity where all great downhill skiers have to be able to thrive.
The crash was a heartbreaking end to one of the great early dramas of the first days of these Winter Games that added another sheen of luster to Vonn’s record-breaking career.
It’s unclear if she suffered further damage to the knee or whether she will be able to compete Tuesday in the combined — teaming up with a slalom teammate — or the super-G on Thursday.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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