Lindsey Vonn‘s Winter Olympics comeback ended in heartbreak after the American star crashed out of the women’s downhill final.
The former Olympic champion, 41, was competing in Cortina following a six-year hiatus from the sport and only nine days on from rupturing her ACL in a training run crash ahead of the Games.
Vonn was just 13 seconds into her run and had rounded the second corner when she appeared to lose control.
The 41-year-old sped over a hill and careered into one of the plastic markers on the side of the track before hitting the ground.
The Cortina crowd fell silent as medical crews rushed to attend to Vonn, who was later airlifted off the mountain.
Immediately after the crash, the American was seen lying on the ground with her skis still attached and looked in agony, wincing as her head sank backwards.
In horrible scenes, Vonn was also heard crying in pain as the medics attended her on the slope.
The 41-year-old had defied the impossible by coming back to compete after rupturing her ACL prior to the games and had completed multiple training runs in the build-up to Sunday’s event.
She had made the decision to race despite having a reconstruction in her knee in 2024 while also having no ACL in her left leg.
Vonn’s coach was heard shouting ‘keep charging, keep pushing’ just as she left the gates.
It took a while for medics to attend Vonn on the slopes but the American was eventually placed onto a stretcher.
Organisers played background music over the skiier’s cries in distressing scenes.
The downhill event was subsequently suspended with other competitors removing their skiis at the top of the slope.
BBC pundit and former alpine skier Chemmy Alcott was distressed by the scenes unfolding in Milan.
‘I feel guilty that I am this emotional,’ Alcott said to the BBC. ‘I just never believed it would end in a clump at the side of the piste, not moving. What we saw that the top of the piste is really hard for a fit athlete, she just had her right knee. It is brutal, think about her family, her team and herself.
‘We have to be realistic. The risk was really high, the risk she takes when she falls will double that, her body will not be able to take that. There is clapping and there is hope that she would be okay but they have put up some background music because it is uncomfortable.’
More to follow….