Lindsey Vonn Suffers Season-Ending Knee Injury After Crash
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| Lindsey Vonn |
Gold medalist skier Lindsey Vonn crashed during the FIS Alpine Ski
World Championship Super-G race in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday and
suffered a season-ending injury to her right knee.
The World Cup champion from Vail, Colo., lost balance on her right
leg after coming around a turn and trying to stick a landing after a
jump. Her right ski came off immediately, and Vonn slid down the race
course for several feet on her back before hitting a gate and coming to a
stop.
According to U.S. Ski Team Medical Director Kyle Wilkens, the
28-year-old competitive skier tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
and the medial collateral ligament (MCL) of her right knee and suffered a
lateral tibial plateau fracture.
“She will be out for the remainder of this season but is expected to
return to racing for the 2013-14 Audi FIS World Cup season and the 2014
Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia,” the U.S. team said in a
statement.
Vonn had posted the fastest first interval and was having a strong
run when she went down. She was immediately attended to by race medical
officials and then taken to the hospital by helicopter, as is standard
protocol, the U.S. team said.
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| Lindsey Vonn Crash |
Vonn is a highly decorated skiing star. With 59 World Cup victories
under her belt, she is one of only five women to have won World Cup
races in all five disciplines of Alpine skiing — downhill, super G,
giant slalom, slalom and super combined.
Expected to make a huge showing at the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics,
Vonn previously took home a gold medal for downhill skiing and the
bronze for the Super-G race at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Vonn started racing again in January after missing a few weeks of the
season to recover from an intestinal illness, according to the
Associated Press.
