The American had damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup race at Crans-Montana just over a week ago, but still lined up in Sunday\u2019s event at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.<\/p>\n
Racing as the 13th skier, Vonn clipped a gate just seconds into her run and somersaulted off the course, remaining on the ground for a prolonged period before a helicopter whisked her to hospital.<\/p>\n
In an update on X, the US Ski and Snowboard Team said: \u201cLindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cortina crowd had raised a huge cheer as Vonn pushed out of the gate, but fell almost silent as the 41-year-old crashed out, before again applauding her off the mountain as the helicopter passed overhead.<\/p>\n
Vonn\u2019s teammate and reigning world champion Breezy Johnson took the title, becoming the first American woman to win the event since Vonn\u2019s triumph in Vancouver in 2010.<\/p>\n
Johnson said: \u201cThe work that we put in, the careers, my heart aches for her. It\u2019s a tough road, and it\u2019s a tough sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty and the madness of it, that it can hurt you so badly, but you keep coming back for more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anything except that her coach said she was cheering for me in the helicopter. I hope for the best for her. I hope that it\u2019s not too bad. My heart aches for her. It\u2019s such a brutal sport sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
On following Vonn as an American champion, Johnson added: \u201cIt\u2019s crazy, because downhill is, in my opinion, the premier event of Alpine skiing, and to win a gold medal in it as an American is very surreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cLindsey has accomplished so much, and will always live in a different echelon than I do, but to have your name alongside her is really something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vonn initially retired from the sport in 2019 due to injury, but after undergoing a partial knee replacement in April 2024, she returned to competition in December that year and had won two World Cup events this season before her fall in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
She had successfully completed two practice runs on the course on Friday and Saturday, wearing a brace on her injured knee, and her coach, Aksel Lund Svindal, felt she was in \u201cgood enough\u201d condition to challenge for a medal.<\/p>\n
Another team-mate, fourth-placed Jacqueline Wiles, said: \u201cWatching Lindsey go down from the start was pretty awful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have such a sisterhood. We travel with each other on the road. We\u2019re a family. To watch someone that you care about so much, it sucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart broke for her in that moment, but that is the inherent risk of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourth member of the US team, Isabella Wright, added: \u201cYou don\u2019t want that for anyone and you especially don\u2019t want it for your teammate and for Lindsey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say this, \u2018if anyone can do it, it\u2019s Lindsey\u2019. Whatever it is, or whatever the situation, she\u2019s very strong. We\u2019re going to support her the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The American had damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup race at Crans-Montana just over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-288161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-latest-news-ticker","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}