CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The fallout from Lindsey Vonn’s devastating crash within the Olympic downhill included a key query: Given her severely injured left knee, ought to she have even been allowed on a course that’s harmful even to completely wholesome skiers?
The resounding reply on social media was no. The reply from the snowboarding group was sure.
9 days earlier than Sunday’s crash, the 41-year-old American ruptured the ACL in her left knee. It’s an harm that sidelines professional athletes for months, however ski racers have now and again competed that method. She appeared steady in two downhill coaching runs on the Milan Cortina Video games.
When she arrived in Cortina final week, Vonn mentioned she had consulted together with her group of physicians and trainers earlier than deciding to maneuver forward with racing. The Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation doesn’t test on the harm statuses of athletes.
“I firmly imagine that this must be determined by the person athlete,” FIS president Johan Eliasch mentioned Monday in Bormio. “And in her case, she definitely is aware of her accidents on her physique higher than anyone else. And when you go searching right here as we speak with all of the athletes, the athletes yesterday, each single athlete has a small harm of some variety.
“What can also be vital for individuals to grasp, that the accident that she had yesterday, she was extremely unfortunate. It was a one in a 1,000,” Eliasch added. “She acquired too near the gate, and he or she acquired caught when she was within the air within the gate and began rotating. Nobody can get well from that, until you do a 360. … That is one thing which is a part of ski racing. It’s a harmful sport.”
The Italian hospital in Treviso the place Vonn was being handled mentioned late Sunday she had undergone surgical procedure to restore a damaged left leg. The U.S. Ski Crew has mentioned solely that Vonn “sustained an harm, however is in steady situation and in good palms with a group of American and Italian physicians.”
The hospital initially mentioned it will launch an replace Monday, then mentioned updates relating to Vonn’s situation would come from her group.
Pierre Ducrey, the sports activities director for the Worldwide Olympic Committee, famous Vonn was capable of prepare and had specialists counseling her determination.
“So from that standpoint, I don’t assume we are able to say that she ought to or shouldn’t have participated. This determination was actually hers and her group to take,” he mentioned. “She made the choice and sadly it led to the harm, however I feel it’s actually the way in which that the choice will get made for each athlete that participates to the downhill.”
Onlookers on social media puzzled if Vonn’s ruptured ACL may have performed a think about her crash close to the highest of the Olympia delle Tofana course, the place she has a World Cup document 12 wins. That perhaps, on a wholesome left knee, she wouldn’t have clipped a gate and been capable of stave off a crash.
“Completely incorrect,” Vonn’s teammate Keely Cashman — who was knocked unconscious in a critical crash 5 years in the past — mentioned Monday. “Those who don’t know ski racing don’t actually perceive what occurred yesterday. She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her round. She was going most likely 70 miles an hour, and in order that twists your physique round. That has nothing to do together with her ACL, nothing to together with her knee. I feel lots of people are ridiculing that, and so much individuals don’t (know) what’s happening.”
The hours after her crash was crammed with opinions, largely of the second-guessing nature. Like, ought to somebody have intervened?
“It’s her alternative,” veteran skier Federica Brignone of Italy mentioned. “If it’s your physique, you then determine what to do, whether or not to race or not. It’s lower than others. Solely you.”
Brignone suffered a number of fractures in her tibial plateau and fibula bone in her left leg throughout a crash in April and made it again to compete within the Olympic downhill — ending tenth.
American downhiller Kyle Negomir echoed that thought.
“Lindsey’s a grown girl, and the perfect pace skier to ever do that sport. If she made her determination, I feel she ought to completely be allowed to take that threat,” Negomir mentioned. “She’s clearly ok that she’s able to pulling it off. Simply because it occurred to not pan out yesterday doesn’t imply that it positively wasn’t a chance that she may simply crush it and have an ideal run.”
Graham reported from Bormio. AP Sports activities Author Will Graves in Treviso and Daniella Matar in Milan contributed to this report.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics