Lindsey Vonn of the US crashes through the girls’s downhillMilano Cortina 2026 Olympics, Alpine Snowboarding, Girls’s Downhill, Tofane Alpine Snowboarding Centre, Belluno, Italy, February 08, 2026. — Reuters
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO: Lindsey Vonn’s audacious bid to win Olympic downhill gold with a ruptured ACL lasted 13 seconds on Sunday because the American nice suffered a horrific crash early in her run and was taken to hospital.
Vonn, 41, whose battle to succeed in the beginning line regardless of her knee harm dominated the opening days of the Milano Cortina Olympics, noticed her unlikely quest finish in agony.
Sporting bib quantity 13 and with a brace on the knee she injured in a crash at Crans Montana on January 30, Vonn seemed pumped up in the beginning gate, tapping her ski poles earlier than setting off in sometimes aggressive vogue.
Vonn has a deep information of Cortina’s Olimpia delle Tofane, having loved 12 of her 84 World Cup wins on it throughout a glittering profession, however she appeared to clip the fourth gate together with her shoulder, shedding management and being launched into the air.
She then barrelled off the sunlit course at excessive velocity earlier than coming to relaxation in a crumpled heap.
Vonn may very well be heard screaming on tv protection as followers and teammates gasped in horror earlier than a shocked hush fell on the packed end space.
She was shortly surrounded by a number of medics and officers earlier than a yellow helicopter arrived and winched her off the course sure up in an orange stretcher.
The helicopter took Vonn to Cortina’s Codivilla Putti Hospital for a medical evaluation. Because it flew overhead in direction of the city, spectators applauded.
There was no fast phrase on her situation.
Skiers left shocked
Fellow American Breezy Johnson, the world champion who had set the quickest time, coated her eyes and seemed away because the helicopter was referred to as. Johnson was later topped champion nevertheless it was a bitter-sweet day for the workforce.
Normal view of a helicopter after Lindsey Vonn of United States crashed through the girls’s downhill, Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, Alpine Snowboarding, Girls’s Downhill, Tofane Alpine Snowboarding Centre, Belluno, Italy, February 08, 2026. — Reuters
“My heart goes out to her,” Johnson mentioned. “When you love the course so much and it hurts you like that it hurts even more.”
Vonn, the 2010 downhill champion and who took bronze in 2018, had been hoping to change into the oldest Alpine snowboarding Olympic medallist after profitable two World Cup races this yr.
Arguably the highest-profile athlete on the Video games, the American’s crash despatched shockwaves throughout day two.
Her teammate, downhill skier Bryce Bennett, watching within the city sq. on an enormous display screen in Bormio the place the lads’s races are staged, was left surprised by what he had seen.
“It’s obviously a bummer. It’s just like the risk of downhill is high and … Like, everyone makes it look so easy when it’s going smooth and then you see how quickly it can go in the other direction,” he advised Reuters.
“Her right leg didn’t look so good, but we’ll see.”
Vonn risked an excessive amount of
Even TV commentators have been visibly shaken by Vonn’s crash.
Followers react after Lindsey Vonn of the US crashed through the girls’s downhill. — ReutersÂ
Double Olympic gold medallist Tina Maze, working for Eurosport, mentioned Vonn had risked an excessive amount of in her run.
“Of course, if you’re not health,y then the consequences are even worse, but we know all Lindsey,” she mentioned. “It’s her decision that she wanted to do this no matter what.
“It is actually robust for everybody right here to see this and particularly for her household and her teammates and everybody working together with her. I imply it is horrible.”
FIS president Johan Eliasch gave his thoughts on the crash.
“Tragic, nevertheless it’s ski racing, proper? And I can solely say, thanks for what she has completed 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 mild. I hope she could have a speedy restoration, and is again on skis very, very quickly.”
Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, said she had put her ‘whole heart’ into racing at the Olympics, especially as it was being staged on a course she loves so much.
“That is undoubtedly the very last thing we wished to see,” she told NBC. “When that occurs, you are simply instantly hoping she’s okay, and it was scary.
“She dared greatly, and she put it all out there.”
