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US' Lindsey Vonn is transported away by helicopter after falling during the Women's Downhill Alpine Skiing competition during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games Milan-Cortina. Michael Kappeler/dpa
Lindsey Vonn started Sunday with a bid for a place on the Olympic podium despite a cruciate knee ligament tear, but ended it with potentially much worse injuries in an Italian hospital.
Never averse to taking risks in her long and glittering career, the 41-year old American threw herself out of the start gate of her beloved Olimpia delle Tofane piste where she had claimed 12 of her 84 World Cup races.
Competing with bib 13, she lasted a mere 13 seconds in the Olympic downhill before she clipped a gate, lost control on the following jump and crashed heavily.
She held her knee, screamed in pain and was finally airlifted away to hospital from where a final diagnosis was still outstanding.
US speed team coach Alex Hödlmoser told Swiss broadcaster SRG that Vonn had probably suffered "a fracture somewhere in her lower leg."
However, Hödlmoser also said that the exact diagnosis was unclear because examinations were continuing.
A little later, the US ski team issued a vague statement, saying: "Lindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians."
Vonn started the race as leader in the downhill World Cup rankings with the help of two season wins, but also with a brace due to a cruciate ligament tear in her left knee she said she sustained nine days ago in a crash during the Crans-Montana downhill.
She came out of retirement last season, with a partially titanium right knee and the aim to win another downhill Olympic gold 16 years after her first.
The Olympic race being in Cortina was one of the reasons, and Sunday's gold medallist and team-mate Breezy Johnson said that this made it all even more painful.
"My heart goes out to her. I hope it is not as bad as it looked," Johnson said.
"I know how difficult it is to ski this course and how sometimes, because you love this course so much, when you crash on it, and it hurts you like that, it hurts you that much worse."
Twice world champion Vonn had hoped for one more moment of glory as she was a veteran of fighting through the pain barrier at Olympic Games.
She injured her hip at her debut in Turin 2006, won downhill gold and super-g bronze in 2010 despite a badly bruised shin and could not compete at all in 2014 because of a severe knee injury.
She got another downhill bronze in 2018 before she possibly tempted fate too much on Sunday.
There was a stunned silence after the crash in the finish area where spectators included rapper and honorary US coach Snoop Dogg and Italian ski great Alberto Tomba, who had lit the Olympic cauldron on Friday.
Also present were her father, Alan Kildow, and her sister, Karin Kildow.
“That’s definitely the last thing we wanted to see,” Karin Kildow told US broadcaster NBC. "When that happens, you’re just immediately hoping she’s okay, and it was scary. When you start to see the stretchers being put out, it’s not a good sign."
Vonn had planned to return to retirement after the Olympics or at the end of the season, so she may have exited in the worst possible way for her and for skiing.
Johan Eliasch, president of the ruling body FIS, called the crash "tragic, but it's ski racing I'm afraid.
"I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport, because this race has been the talk of the Games and it's put our sport in the best possible light."
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