CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Despite tearing the most important ligament in her knee nine days ago, Lindsey Vonn said she would make it to the starting gate for the Olympic downhill race, and she did just that.
But Vonn’s dreams of winning back gold in the downhill on Sunday ended in disappointment when the American alpine skiing legend crashed on the famous Olympia delle Tofane slopes at the Winter Olympics.
Vonn, who started in 13th place, missed a jump and clipped into the gate in mid-air, and upon landing he rolled sideways and hit the snow hard, rolling down the icy slope and causing his skis to spin as he tried to come to a stop. She lay still as doctors rushed across the mountain to treat her.
At the foot of the hill in the finish area, silence fell over the grandstand filled with thousands of fans. They were shouting at her just moments ago when she burst out of the gate. Perhaps the cheers from the local Italians got louder. Probably not.
All completed in 13 seconds. Within minutes, a helicopter could be heard coming up the mountain while medical workers tended to Bon in the middle of the slope. A helicopter airlifted her and flew over the finish area to loud cheers. The race was stopped for approximately 20 minutes.
“That was definitely the last thing we wanted to see,” Vonn’s sister Karin Kildow said on NBC after Vonn was airlifted. “It happened so fast. When something like that happens, right away you just hope she’s okay. Once you started seeing the stretchers start coming out, it was scary because that’s not a good sign.”
“It’s really hard to watch because she’s letting it all out.”
Kildow said the family hopes to receive an update on Vonn’s status soon.
“She’s got all her surgeons here and her (physical therapy) staff and her doctors, so I’m sure they’ll give us a report,” Kildow said. “I think all we’re hearing is that she’s being evaluated right now.”
american teammate Breezy Johnson won the racebecoming the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill since Vonn in 2010. Mr Johnson said he was “heartbroken” to mourn Mr Vonn’s death and was honored to be the next candidate to win downhill.
“Lindsay has accomplished so much, and she’s going to live in a different class than me, but I think it’s really special to have your name next to hers,” Johnson said.
Asked if he had an update on Vonn, Johnson said Vonn’s coach told him Vonn was cheering on him in the helicopter.
A helicopter arrived to airlift Lindsey Vonn from the mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo after her crash in the women’s Olympic downhill race on Sunday. (Mattia Osbot/Getty Images)
For more than 20 years, no one skied as hard, aggressively, or boldly as Vonn. That was her superpower. It turned her into the best speed skier in the history of the sport, but it also caused a series of unpleasant crashes that ultimately ended her career six years ago.
It was an amazing result considering it took over a week for him to even make it to the starting gate. Vonn tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee. In one of the last races before the Olympics. The injury appeared to dash Vonn’s hopes of becoming the oldest athlete to win an Olympic medal in an alpine event before he arrived in Cortina.
But with a combination of determination, strength and grit, Vonn showed enough health and stability for her left knee to try, brushing off an injury that would cause most athletes to miss the better part of a year. Vonn isn’t “most athletes.” The 41-year-old is an irresistible force obsessed with speed and skiing, and loves nothing more than plunging down steep ice sheets at 80 miles per hour, bordering on recklessness and sanity, something all great downhill skiers succeed at.
The accident had a heartbreaking ending. One of the great early dramas After the first day of the Winter Olympics, Vonn’s record-breaking career has added another layer of luster. She won 84 World Cup races, including two downhills this season, and earned eight world championships and three Olympic medals. Only Mikaela Shiffrin (108) and Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark (86) have won more World Cups.
The bongs will be flown in from the mountains. (Jacqueline Martin/Associated Press)
“It’s a tragedy, but unfortunately this is ski racing,” said FIS president Johan Elias. “This race was the talk of the Olympics and shined our sport in the best light, so we can only thank her for everything she has done for our sport.
“I hope she recovers quickly and can get back to skiing soon.”
It is unclear whether Vonn sustained further damage to her knee. She originally planned to compete in downhill, team combined and super-G at the Olympics. The latter two are still to come.
For more than a week, Bon looked like a superhuman. She completed both training runs in decent shape, especially the second one on Saturday.
After the competition, her coach Axel Lund Svindal said the only cause for concern was that she was landing on one ski instead of two. She seems to like her right knee, which underwent successful partial knee replacement surgery in 2024, allowing her to make a comeback. Svindal said she was able to land on both skis, but her brain seemed to unconsciously prefer the ski on the right.
Vonn did not speak to the media after these runs. Svindar echoed her sentiments and was optimistic.
“I think I’ll talk to other people tomorrow,” he said Saturday.
Instead, Vonn was taken off the mountain by helicopter for the second time in nine days.
The combination of Johnson’s wild ride and Vonn’s crash, which set and maintained the early pace, created the ultimate tremor of joy and heartbreak for the remaining American racers, Jacqueline Wiles and Vera Wright.
Wilds description emotional roller coaster Medics were treating Bon at the top of the mountain.
“I already had a lot of emotions before I ran,” she said. “I saw Breezy have a great run. I was really pumped and pumped for her. It was pretty cool to watch. And it was pretty awful to see Lindsey fall off the start.”
There would have been more emotion after Wiles’ run, just not the emotion she had hoped for. She finished in fourth place, one spot off the medal stand.
Wright was still visibly shaken an hour after finishing 21st.
“After years of hard work and rehabilitation and everything else, the last thing you want to see someone go through is something like this,” Wright said.
Wright said this is extremely upsetting, even though Bong continues to be a source of inspiration.
“She deserves more,” Wright said.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with alpine skiing and other sports. Hard work, dedication, and big dreams can create opportunities, but they don’t guarantee results.
Most athletes don’t get what they strive for out of their careers. Sometimes someone else is simply better. Every once in a while, skis rattle over small, barely visible undulations, and a split second later the racer crashes into a gate in the air, somersaulting down the mountain in a cloud of ice and snow.
Svindal said Friday he had no doubt that Vonn would be mentally and physically ready by race time.
By all appearances, she wasn’t, but she wasn’t. Until Olimpia delle Tofane, one of the jewels of the sport and a place of glory and drama, once again brought heartbreak to ski racing.