Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during the women’s downhill race on Sunday.Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press
On a dramatic day in the women’s downhill event at the Milano Cortina Olympics, Lindsey Vonn suffered a grizzly crash, while fellow American Breezy Johnson earned the gold medal.
Vonn’s fifth Olympics ended as many feared it would when she said she would race on a torn ACL – with the star American alpine ski racer being airlifted off the mountain on Sunday after a gruesome fall.
Just 13.4 seconds into her run, Vonn’s legs failed her on the Olympic course in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Wearing the No.13 bib, Vonn rolled and twisted into a sideways crash with a burst of screams.
The atmosphere at the famous Olimpia delle Tofane where Vonn has amassed 12 World Cup victories fell silent, from fans to media, and the other skiers in the event. Medics rushed to help Vonn before a lengthy delay in the event for a helicopter to fly her off the mountain. It was one of a few crashes in Sunday’s event.
Vonn’s American teammate Johnson, who had already put down the blistering run of one minute and 36.10 seconds while racing in the No.6 bib that would earn her Olympic Gold, watched from the leader’s seat.
American Breezy Johnson (center) with silver medallist Emma Aicher of Germany (L) and bronze medallist Sofia Goggia of Italy (R). Johnson said her ‘heart aches’ for teammate Vonn.Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
Germany’s Emma Aicher earned the silver medal (1:36.14), while Italian Sophia Goggia took bronze (1:36.69). But Vonn’s accident subdued the celebratory emotions.
The three-time Olympic medalist was trying to make a comeback at age 41, after a retirement of some six years.
She’d been having a dream season until she torn her anterior cruciate ligament racing in a World Cup event in Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Jan. 30, less than two weeks out from the Winter Games. She had insisted she would race on it, vowing her Olympic dream was not over. She was willing to gamble, and she lost.
“The work that we put in, the career, obviously my heart aches for her,” said Johnson. “It’s a tough road, and it’s a tough sport, and I think that’s the beauty and the madness of it: that it can hurt you so badly, but you keep coming back for more.”
Andorra’s Cande Moreno and Austria’s Nina Ortlieb also crashed during their runs. Ortlieb was able to stand up and walk off the course, while Moreno needed to be airlifted.
It was Vonn who dominated the attention. She’d been one of the marquee names in these Winter Games. On Sunday, media buses were heaving with reporters and photographers from all over the world, winding the tree and mountain-lined roads into Cortina d’Ampezzo, and crawling up to the fashionable 2026 Olympics winter resort nestled in the Italian Dolomites.
Spectators react to Vonn’s accident.Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters
The fog of the past few days at Tofane Alpine Ski Centre had passed, and it was an idyllic sunny setting. The grandstands were jammed. A DJ was pumping dance music. Snoop Dogg was in the crowd. It was billed as one of the most competitive Olympic women’s downhill races ever.
The crash is likely to end Vonn’s Olympic campaign in Italy, and it was possibly the last race of her storied career.
“My heart is just hurting for her, because I grew up watching her, and I’m such a fan, and I really was rooting for her,” said Canadian skier Cassidy Grey of Calgary, who finished 26th on Sunday and was in the chairlift traveling to the start gate when she looked down and saw Vonn with the medical team.
The other Canadian in Sunday’s downhill, Ottawa’s Valerie Grenier, 29 was disqualified from the event after a fluke mishap with one of her pole straps right before her race caused a late push out of the start gate.
She did the race anyway, but Grenier knew the whole time she was likely to be disqualified for the late exit.
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