Emma Aicher of Germany took silver, finishing four-hundredths of a second behind Johnson (+0.04), the blink of an eye. The 22-year-old has four victories on the World Cup circuit (the highest level of professional Alpine skiing), all coming within the last year. Aicher’s star is on the rise, and it’s shined especially brightly Sunday.

Local hero Sofia Goggia snagged bronze in front of the Italian faithful (+0.59). It was the Bergamo, Lombardy native’s third Olympic medal. In 2018, she won gold in the PyeongChang downhill, and like Johnson, hurt he knee in a Cortina crash weeks before the Beijing Games. With a partially torn ACL and minor fibula fracture, she still managed to secure silver in Beijing. 

The Milan Cortina bronze completes an “Olympic downhill medal podium” for Goggia, having collected one of each color. 

RESULTS

Wearing the 13th bib, Lindsey Vonn (USA) suffered a hard crash moments into her run. The 41-year-old clipped a race gate, twisted around and ultimately lost her balance. She fell hard on the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre snow and tumbled down the piste until coming to a stop. 

The energized crowd fell silent. A course hold was put into place and medical personnel rushed to attend to the St. Paul, Minnesota native.

After about 15 minutes, Vonn was airlifted via helicopter off the slope for further evaluation.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard provided a statement: “Lindsey Vonn fell in the Olympic downhill and will be evaluated by medical staff.”