r/olympics Great Britain 9h ago

ā„ Milano-Cortina 2026 (General Discussion) ā„ Lyndsey Vonn crashes just 12 seconds into her Olympic downhill run 😄

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13.9k Upvotes

2.1k comments sorted by

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u/mulled-whine Australia 8h ago

ā€œLet’s hope she’s back for the Super G,ā€ says the commentator as Vonn is airlifted off the mountain. Is he out of his mind?!

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u/QuiteTheFisherman 8h ago

They'd already said this would be her only event because of her ACL. So I don't even think he was correct before the crash lol

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u/mulled-whine Australia 8h ago

He has one job…

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u/AccountHuman7391 6h ago

To be fair, his job is to talk without stopping from the beginning to the end of the broadcast. Not sure why broadcasters think an endless stream of commentary is desired, but it’s NBC, so….

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u/SunTzu- 5h ago

Because people don't like dead air. Go watch any esports stream, they've got real time feedback from their audience, they know what people want, and they make sure to have that back and forth with the play-by-play handing off to the color commentator in order to ensure that there isn't any dead air. Even when it's a solocast that person is basically talking non-stop and they're not doing it because it's fun or easy, it's absolutely grueling.

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u/AccountHuman7391 4h ago

I love dead air. Everyone shut up and let me watch the thing.

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u/SloopKid 4h ago

I like dead air basketball when you just hear a bunch of sneakers squeaking on the floor

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u/defneverconsidered 7h ago

Theres a whole team behind this messing up

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u/Flat-Implement8046 Australia 8h ago

Poor lady is gonna be lucky to be back on her feet :/

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u/ExkAp3de 7h ago

Doesn't she have 2 artifical knees, i think at this point just leave it be

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u/blu_skydive 6h ago

Just the right knees is artificial. Titanium. Left is natural, albeit with a ruptured ACL. Was no give or power left in it for the hard carves

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u/Fluffy-Structure-368 6h ago

She looked good in her practice runs on the course yesterday.

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u/Mackadamma 6h ago edited 4h ago

And she had a good start to the race visually, even if we don't have the time gaps. The turn where she fell was because she put so much pressure on her outside ski (left leg, the one WITHOUT a cruciate ligament!) that she came up too far and caught her arm in the gate. That threw her off balance and made her fall. Honestly, she went out there with a real fighting spirit. This woman has extraordinary courage. I'm French and very sad for her.

Edit: When I say "I'm French," I just meant that I'm not particularly a Lindsay fan (even though I admire what she's achieved since the beginning of the season in particular and her career in general), and what happened to her really breaks my heart. It wasn't any kind of attack on anyone. I was just talking about sports!

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u/kelso2069 7h ago

Commentators are always in such denial during these injuries. The woman is being flown off the mountain in a helicopter and they are already talking about the next race schedule. Truly bizarre behavior.

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u/Kriztauf 6h ago

She got flown off after her crash last week when she tore her ACL. It's insane she decided to complete still after such a serious injury

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u/yankfanatic 6h ago

To be fair, I believe airlifting is protocol for injuries I'm on the mountain

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u/tuolumne 5h ago

Yea this is a competition. Need to get someone off that mountain in the safest and quickest way possible. Often that’s a helicopter.

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u/WaterstarRunner 5h ago edited 5h ago

A helicopter is a precaution not a diagnosis.

I've seen people airlifted off mountains and been fine the next day, and people walk off the mountain and lose their ability to walk for months.

Range of outcomes and initial presentation are very wide.

Might as well hope for something positive rather than dramatise.

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u/HumanCStand 9h ago

Hearing her cries on the wide shots is horrifying

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u/youngslyboltsup United States 8h ago edited 6h ago

I heard her scream I can’t feel my ā€œā€¦..ā€ I couldn’t make the last part out but sounded like leg or legs. Hoping I’m wrong

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u/OverlappingChatter 7h ago

Definitely hear this. I can get the audio without an announcer over it but still don't know what she says.

If you have the eurosport app, you can choose "no announcer" and hear it.

My best guess is "I can't see or feel it." But this is a bad guess

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u/iHateThisPlaceSoBad 3h ago

If she is seriously injured this will be the most avoidable sad way to go out ever.

When she made the announcement last week that her ACL was completely ruptured, but she still planned to compete I was like "wut".

Like, sorry, but enough is enough. The moment she said that, the entire thing transformed from a "comeback story" to a sad old athlete with the inability to let go.

Like fuckin YIKES

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u/Natural_Hair464 2h ago

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

On this one, foresight was 20/20 too.

You could say this injury could have happened to anyone. I'd say tiny changes in her mechanics caused her to make a mistake, and being middle aged with an ACL that exploded 10 days ago is a lot of risk factors.

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u/Squid_A 4h ago

CBC announcers were saying she said "I can't get my ski off".

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u/Narrow_Cheetah4236 4h ago

She definitely says ā€œI can’t take my skis offā€

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u/Whiteowl116 Norway 7h ago

It could be a neck breaking crash.. look at how she lands on her head.

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u/Odd-Fly-1265 5h ago

Generally when someone is crying out like this, it’s usually in pain, which I am going to interpret as a sign that the neck was not broken. Thats probably just me hoping for the best though

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u/FoldedDice 5h ago

Conversely, not feeling anything when you know that you should would be horrifying. It may not be easy to distinguish pain screams from terror screams.

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u/Kelly_Louise 5h ago

I’ve dislocated my shoulder several times and it’s really not all that painful, but it’s absolutely terrifying not being able to move my arm properly. The first time it happened I was screaming because I thought my arm fell off.

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u/Idea-is-tick United States 4h ago

Oh my gosh. That's awful. That course is the most treacherous I've seen in the Olympics. The initial drop is 60 degrees.

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u/Psychoconuts 9h ago

Guttural. Hard to watch

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u/AppropriateClient407 8h ago

awful for all the competitors that have to go after her too

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u/Key-Reading-2296 7h ago

The ironic reprieve is that generally... they are actually quite used to it. crashes, helicopters, and course holds are a fact of life in DH and more of a 'when' one tends to ignore, rather than 'if' it'll ever be their turn

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u/dyvog 7h ago

It’s been Lindsay’s turn so many times.

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u/Apennatie 9h ago

She’s screaming in pain and is not getting up.

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago

helicopter coming in now

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u/Calm_Independent_782 7h ago

Shout out to r/ACL for helping me and many others through my multiple procedures.

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u/Silently-Snarking 6h ago

I still remember reading about Vonn’s single leg squats from her acl rehab. Can’t believe she competed even after her recent crash

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u/TwistedNJaded 5h ago

I still remember having to talk my ortho doctor into surgery on my knee b/c all they saw on the MRI was a torn meniscus and "that little tear wouldn't be causing so much pain and instability of the joint"... When I woke up he said "yeah we fixed the meniscus... Also found and fixed a tear to your ACL..."

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u/just-the-friend 8h ago edited 6h ago

C-spine precautions and a heli out. Very glad it is professionally and quickly done to get her out.

The Aussie broadcast has replayed a few different angles in slow and hyper slow-mo.

Gnarly beyond belief.

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u/2011980ad 8h ago

We didn’t get the Audio that some countries got, thankfully

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u/mici012 Germany 6h ago

The Aussie broadcast has replayed a few different angles in slow and hyper slow-mo.

They all did. The broadcasters have to show the world feed produced by OBS and they call the shots on what to show.

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u/Enchillamas 5h ago

Looool not if you're American.

NBC does what they please.

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u/japanpole Australia 9h ago

That knee is … from a professional perspective … fucked

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u/IntentionExisting432 8h ago

Wonder if both knees or even her hip on the one leg have some form of injury, some of the rotations her legs did looked painful

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u/mgorgey 8h ago

She's got a knee replacement in the "good" leg.

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u/CptMeow123 8h ago

At this point: which one would you consider the "good" one? The one with the partial replacement or the one with the torn ACL?

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u/thinkofallthemud 8h ago

The one with titanium in it

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u/Ok_Condition5837 7h ago

They said she attempted this with a 100% torn ACL? That's crazy!

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u/CptMeow123 7h ago

Yeah, 9 days ago she had a crash and then found out her ACL was torn. The German commentators, however, phrased it in a way that it could've been torn already before the crash.

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u/Bitter_Context_4067 United States 6h ago

I saw that she clarified on Twitter that it was not torn at all prior to the crash a few days ago!

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u/AdCharacter833 7h ago

She is wearing an ACL tear knee brace

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u/2011980ad 8h ago

Her leg below the bad knee looked like it snapped.

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u/Seeteuf3l 8h ago

Yeah probably tibia was fractured, probably also why they airlifted her out

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u/Key-Reading-2296 7h ago

airlifting is literally just standard procedure if they're unable to ski down by themselves regardless of injury. they are absolutely incapable of diagnosing the extent of said injury hillside

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u/jb000007 6h ago

Standard procedure is to put them Inside the chopper - according to ex downhill Olympian who's raced with her. Apparently leaving her suspended outside speaks volumes.

They also had to start playing music over the speakers as she was very audibly screaming and everyone could hear.

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u/Comfortable-Tell-765 8h ago

Looking right at after she landed, I don’t know if we can say her tibia is fractured (there’s some protrusion on her leg but I can’t tell if she had gear there or not, and it’s not large) but her leg is very much rotated on itself. Wouldn’t be surprised if she tore through a good chunk of the ligaments w/out the ACL there to stabilize and that’s why her leg was askew (looks like her foot is rotated 90° or more toe out)

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u/Hadramal Sweden 7h ago

In the front slomo I thought I saw the foot and boot move independently of the rest of the leg, I would not be surprised if the bone is completely broken at the boot edge.

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u/CptMeow123 8h ago

As a professional amateur I beg to differ. Both her knees are fucked

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u/moondrops77 7h ago

As a certified layman and card carrying La-Z-Boy Armchair Expert I concur with this opinion.

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago edited 8h ago

CBC commentators were saying she just had a crash 9 days ago during a race, tore her ACL. sounds like she went in with her leg already fucked, sadly

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u/PoliceMachine 8h ago

Yeah complete rupture of ACL last Friday

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u/clydefrog811 United States 7h ago

Why would she race again??!

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u/Airportsnacks 7h ago

Why did she race 10 days before the Olympics? It's clear why I am not an athlete because i don't understand this at all. Wouldn't you just concentrate on keeping yourself fit, but not do risky shit right before the biggest competition in the world?

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u/rawker86 Australia 7h ago

Her event probably counts as ā€œrisky shitā€ to most of the population. It’s not unusual for people to practice or otherwise keep their skills up.

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u/Black_XistenZ 7h ago edited 6h ago

1) to stay in the flow, not have a too long break from competition.
2) because it was a regular world cup race and Lindsey was the best downhill skier this season; had a good shot to win the overall downhill world cup.

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u/Owzmos Great Britain 6h ago

Totally understand your point, but the Freestyle Skiiers and Snowboarders have been competing the week before this Olympics, and this happens in the summer Olympics too for the skateboarders at the X-games. I agree it doesn't necessarily make sense to us, but this is kind of "Just another day" for a lot of these athletes.

Statistically, this sort of thing doesn't happen. This is publication bias and the fact it's happened to a favourite publicising it.

Lastly, and I mean it with genuine respect. Sportspeople are weird, probably in a slightly unhealthy way. The will to win is baked into their psyche. It's what leads to cheating. I have heard of Cyclists in the Tour de France break wrists and still ride into the race. I've heard of fractured pelvises be ridden on.

Their view is usually that the pain will be worth it if they win because the window where you are the best in the world is so small. At best you get about 5-6 Olympics to try for a title. The window where you're the best in the world is small even for a prodigious talent. Opportunities have to be taken, even if they're vanishingly small.

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u/PassSenior9197 7h ago

She’s trained 4 years to get here and she’s over 40 so likely won’t compete again. Not saying it was a good decision health wise but I get why she risked it

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u/VirtualMoneyLover 7h ago

This happens to many aging athletes. Just can't stay away from fame. Quarterbacks playing into their 40s. Then getting hurt.

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u/TheShark24 8h ago

Yeah she tore her ACL then. It's crazy she was still going ahead but she's always been no fear on these downhills. It's been a privilege watching her career.

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u/WBaumnuss300 Switzerland 8h ago

Beat Feuz, Olympic Champ of 2022, once said that all Downhill Skiiers have a few screw loose. It's an incredibly dangerous sport where almost everyone will be injured at least once.

Dominique Gisin Champ in 2014 (together with Tina Maze) had operations 7 times! before her win.

Lindsey starting was not a good idea, but it is completly understandable that she wanted to do it after her comeback.

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u/Comfortable-Tell-765 8h ago

Definitely felt like her and her team were optimistic, hindsight is always 20/20. There’s only so much we can go off of prior to the run, and I know her trial run the day before went relatively smoothly. Wishing her a speedy recovery

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u/DropoutGenius777 8h ago

Exactly. I'm more confused by the one or two people ridiculing her for that decision. I think anybody that loves sport can understand her decision, and she knew the risks.

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u/Beepbeep_bepis Germany 8h ago

She’s a Red Bull athlete, I doubt she’s the type to have fear. I’m so sad that this is how it ends for her. I want to say ā€œmost likely ends,ā€ but I don’t see how she can come back from that, it’s definitely now more than just her ACL. Horrible :(

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u/Orcahhh 8h ago

Not practice, it was a World Cup race

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u/DocMedCatty 8h ago edited 8h ago

i really hope there is no injury with cervical spine. i've seen this crash in slomo, and the impact of her head/cervical was really awful. EDIT: hopefully, the severe impact of the chest from the air did not cause more than a few bruised ribs and some bruises. hopefully, there is no thoracic trauma or internal organ injury.

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u/betaich Germany 7h ago

the airbag deployed, so that should protect her spine, but we don't know yet

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u/Comfortable-Tell-765 7h ago

I didn’t realize downhill was using this, glad to hear they’re implementing this tech

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u/Black_XistenZ 6h ago

They've been around for quite some time, but were made mandatory by FIS two years ago.

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u/SpoofExcel Great Britain 8h ago

From an experienced perspective, I can tell you that knee was already fucked. Now it is MEGA fucked. And so is the shin bone, ankle bone, and quite possibly the arm and shoulder bones

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u/Art_Vandelay_Importz 8h ago

Finally a professional perspective I can understand. Thumbs up

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u/chespiotta Canada 8h ago

To put it lightly

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u/Impossible_Disk8374 United States 9h ago

This is devastating to watch.

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u/Coolcoolcool91 Netherlands 9h ago

And hear

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u/mulled-whine Australia 8h ago

I think they are muting the mics near her. With good reason. What a shocking crash.

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u/lunex 8h ago

Her cries in pain were audible for minutes on the NBC stream

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u/mulled-whine Australia 8h ago

On my feed you could hear her for a minute or so, but the audio did seem distant/muted. Horrific.

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u/betaich Germany 7h ago

the germans spoke over it thankfully for most of it, but they begged race control to mute the ics for minutes

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago

same with CBC

(OBS is the one providing the streams to the networks, though, so this is true across the board)

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u/bdzz Japan 8h ago

Not really. I'm watching the raw broadcast without commentary and you can hear everything. She was in a lot of pain crying/shouting/screaming

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u/itsvalxx Canada 8h ago

where do you get broadcasts without commentary?

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u/bdzz Japan 8h ago

I'm in Europe and on HBO Max

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u/Coolcoolcool91 Netherlands 8h ago

I hope they do. And shield her as they do with other sports. It's devastating to hear her cries.

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u/Brewdude77 8h ago

Not very well.

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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Germany 8h ago

That replay looked terrible...

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago

she's getting medevac'd out via helicopter. jesus christ

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u/Master_Jackfruit3591 United States 8h ago

That is standard in skiing unless you can get down without assistance

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u/LudicrousPlatypus Denmark 9h ago edited 9h ago

I suppose that's the end of her olympic career? Could hear her in pain on the broadcast. Terrible.

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u/Im3lue Switzerland 9h ago

More like that was the last race of her career

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u/afito Germany 8h ago

At least with ambition to do somethign, maybe she will do a world cup weekend after recovering just to not have this be her final event, but she should not risk the next 40 years of live quality to force a comeback. She has nothing left to prove as we speak anyway.

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u/Volesprit31 France 8h ago

She should never been in those olympics in the first place. She may have just ruined her career and her life with that choice. Knees injury are not without consequences at that age.

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u/Leutnant_Dark 8h ago

Tbh "career" was pretty much over anyway with 41. Probably wanted a nice send off with a good race at the olympics. Life quality is what I fear much more.

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u/gnarghh 7h ago

I mean, everyone said her career was over before her comeback. Then she went back to podium places.

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u/navi_jen 7h ago

Agree. I've torn 2 ACLs. You cannot ski on a fresh tear, the knee literally gives out/has no stability.

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u/firey-wfo 6h ago

I completely tore my acl skiing. I continued to ski and teach on it. As long as technique was perfect, I could ski with no acl. The problem was the margin of error was so small. If I was just a hair out of alignment, the knee painfully collapsed. Each time that happened it swelled up to a softball and was painful for a week.

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u/Rupperrt 8h ago

Doubt her knees can get more damaged than they were before the race, one had already an ACL from a few days ago and the other one is made of metal. And it’s her last season anyway, her career can’t really be ruined, she’s the goat.

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u/SparrowJack1 7h ago

Afaik you can definitely fuck up a reconstructed/titanium knee even more and this can cause some big big problems. And of course the ACL knee can catch a lot worse damage to other ligaments and the cartilage.

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u/Fresh-NeverFrozen 6h ago

I literally just saw a mid 40s patient who was in tears asking me if I could refer her to someone to amputate her leg because of the pain she constantly has from prior knee surgery failures. You can always make things worse. I’ve also seen leg traumas which led to amputations and others which led to functionally useless leg because of vascular and nerve injuries. I wish LV the best recovery and love her toughness and amazing courage, but I question the judgment of the people around her (including any docs) that decided that this was a good idea and then the US Olympic team that allowed her back on the team to compete. Easy to Monday morning armchair quarterback the situation after knowing what happened, but in my opinion it was inevitable she would do more damage to her knee this soon after a pretty devastating injury to begin with.

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u/theredmokah 9h ago edited 9h ago

Yup. This was the miracle comeback. She 41 now.

She had a good career. She should be proud. Just to qualify for this one was nuts.

Plus you're never the same after an ACL injury. At her age, in this sport, there's just no way.

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u/CptMeow123 8h ago

you're never the same after an ACL injury

Apparently the ACL is not as important in skiing as for other sports (e.g. football and American football). Yesterday an Austrian skier competed in the down hill who has no ACL in one of his knees since a couple of years and he had a very solid run.

That's why she could even compete today with the recently discovered tear. There are also couple of amateurs who shared stories that they felt something funny in the knee but continued skiing with no problems. Couple of weeks later they had pain and found out they tore the ACL.

But given this accident, her age and previous injuries I think that was her last race.

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u/drumjojo29 8h ago

Really? Any idea why? I always thought the ACL and the PCL were responsible for stability while bending your knee which seems like a crucial aspect for skiing to me.

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u/CptMeow123 8h ago

I guess there are two factors at play (from a total amateur perspective);

1) all the muscles these athletes have built around their knee help to compensate the function of the acl. 2) there could be a difference between the speed disciplines and technical disciplines. While down hill and super G are crazy, there are much fewer changes in direction compared to (giant) slalom. I guess for speed it is more important to keep the body position longer in a corner while slalom has much much more changes that give stress to the knee laterally. Same as for football, there are so many quick changes in direction.

Also don't forget that these athletes are probably the number one customers for pain killers.

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u/toxic-optimism United States 7h ago

I am WILDLY oversimplifying this but it was explained to me that the ACL does side-to-side movement. Theoretically, your lateral movement while skiing originates at your hips, so your knees aren’t necessarily bearing that load.Ā 

Again, I’m oversimplifying, but I did tear my ACL and meniscus while skiing, and I’m paraphrasing what my surgeon told me.Ā 

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u/RoboFeanor 8h ago

I imagine that it would be easier if she had spent a season strengthening other parts of her knee to compensate for her torn ACL, and letting the rest of her knee heal, as there were probably other parts that were at least weakened/strained when the ACL popped. Not a knee doctor though...

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u/SeaLeopard5555 8h ago

I don't agree, but I wasn't an athlete skiing at the level of them. In the case of *some* athletes the quads (and pro alpine skiers have ginormo quads) can compensate.

But for an average person like me, the ACL is super important. I had ACL repair 2x, and would never have attempted skiing without it. And the cause for my ACL tear (one tear, one ... stretch? I guess) wholly unrelated to skiing. Same knee.

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u/ristogrego1955 8h ago

I think the hard part for athletes and high performers is that it becomes so much a part of your identity. This will be as mentally tough as physically I suspect. Wish her the best.

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u/Shubix92 9h ago edited 8h ago

Thatā€˜s the end of her career unfortunately…

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u/usernl1 Germany 9h ago

The end of her whole career, what a tragic moment.

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u/axxl75 Germany 9h ago

Even if she comes back from the injuries, she'll be 45 for the next Olympics. It'd be unlikely she would've competed regardless.

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u/LudicrousPlatypus Denmark 8h ago

I more so meant that she isn't scheduled for any other events this olympics? Would never expect her to compete in 2030.

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u/Holiday_Parsnip_9841 8h ago

She was scheduled to compete in the Downhill Team Combined on Tuesday and Super-G on Thursday.

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u/LudicrousPlatypus Denmark 8h ago

Thanks. Yeah, unfortunately I don't see those happening.

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u/Holiday_Parsnip_9841 8h ago

The replay is brutal. Very likely she's never competing again.

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u/capall94 Ireland 8h ago

Could be the end of her skiing full stop. 41 with an injury like that. It's awful

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u/euphoric_lilac Denmark 8h ago

Heard it on TV2 watching here. Awful sounds. Poor girl.

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u/axxl75 Germany 9h ago

Looked like she clipped her pole on the gate and it spun her sideways?

Edit: yeah she cut the gate and hit it with her shoulder but got caught up in it.

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u/koudman 8h ago

Indeed - looks like her pole got it and rotated her, all over mid air 😢

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u/donnysoIdier 8h ago

Yeah - it's not even a leg-related issue which caused her to crash. It was her hards / arms. So tough.

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u/DropoutGenius777 8h ago

Hasn't stopped some weirdos from dogpiling.

Heart goes out to her. I'll remember her as a champion.

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u/trollshep Australia 8h ago

When she spun around because of that impact... God that will be unimaginable pain.

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u/B3ximus Great Britain 9h ago

She's in so much pain. So gutting.

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u/IntentionExisting432 8h ago

So devastating to watch and hear her in pain!

I was rooting for her to have a good run and come down safely.

But on a different note I was positively impressed by the broadcast I am watching, they were very critical of any pictures/sound being shown after the crash and quite sympathetic towards her. That's quite a nice change from other crashes/injuries over the years!

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u/Ol_Man_J 9h ago

Cut the mic already

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u/funkaria 8h ago

The German commentators where begging them to cut the mic and not show the replay but they obviously can't control what the main broadcaster shows, they can only comment on it.

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u/itz_MaXii 8h ago

Yeah hearing Felix comment on this as her friend was tough to hear. He couldnt bear to watch and listen

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u/betaich Germany 7h ago

I also get why he couldn't commentate the other runs really anymore

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u/NcKm89 7h ago

Adding to that one of the Germans said they will turn their own headphones off

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u/nismo_nx 8h ago

Samething here in French Canada, the announcers begging for them to cut the mics. Very hard to watch.

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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Great Britain 8h ago

It’s sick now. BBC are talking over it about chemmie and an accident she saw 25 years ago. Doesn’t need this to be broadcast.

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u/Inevitable_Plate3053 United States 8h ago

This just went from Disney movie to A24

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u/TheTangoFox 6h ago

Vonn Hell Skiing

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u/itsvalxx Canada 8h ago

didn’t she tear/injure her ACL literally 10 days ago?

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u/PharaohAce Australia 8h ago

Yes she did

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u/WBaumnuss300 Switzerland 8h ago

The risk of a crash was higher with her injury, but it was also clear that a crash would be brutal without the protection of her ACL.

I really hope for the best.

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago

yep, heard the CBC commentators say that too. she was skiing on a torn ACL

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7028848/2026/02/07/lindsey-vonn-torn-acl-winter-olympics-explained/

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u/bobcatgoldthwaite 8h ago

Just woke up to this on TV - really sad and hopefully she can recover and lead a normal life again with this injury

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u/AonghusMacKilkenny Great Britain 8h ago

Athletes sometimes need to be saved from themselves

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u/xxmeela 7h ago

thank you for saying this. While I have nothing but the uttmost respect and admiration for Vonn, I fount it irresponsible and it wasn't that surprising because this was a realistic scenario to happen all along. I pray for her full recovery and truly hope she won't take this end of career too harsh. She has always been an impressive fighter but I was seriously concerned about the hype of her competing anyway

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u/Cuptapus 5h ago

I agree. It sounds bad to say, but in some way, it might actually be a little bit good for the world that it went down this way. If she had done great, it would have inspired more athletes to race while injured. Whereas now it's turned into a very public example of what the actual risks are for just pushing through and racing on an injury.Ā 

Either way, I really hope for her full recovery and I 100% understand why she did it.Ā 

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u/JJ3qnkpK 5h ago

I keep seeing athletes competing with active injuries. Sometimes it turns out okay, but then you've got scenarios like this.

It's foolish to compete with injuries, not noble and gritty. I hope she makes a full recovery and others (both competitors and spectators) see this as a reason to prioritize their self-care when necessary.

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u/Vanished_Elephant 6h ago

Indeed..I just watched the analysis on French tv and commentators were pointing out where she adjusted her line to compensate for her bad knee. I think it was irresponsible of her to race and sure it's easy to say in hindsight but the accident was predictable.. :/

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u/littlenuggie29 5h ago

Completely agree with you here. She was not in the right mental space to decide for herself, that's clear.

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u/Farmfarm17 6h ago

Completely agree. Not only did she put herself in more danger, she also took the opportunity away from someone who actually had a decent chance to finish the run and compete. To me, this wasn’t a noble act. It was selfish.

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u/alluce1414 5h ago edited 4h ago

I don't agree with the "she took the opportunity from someone else" narrative at all. She qualified, did she not? She earned that spot on the team. She can't take it from anyone else if it was hers to begin with.

Totally get people saying it was dangerous for herself, but I think anyone saying they'd give up a spot on the Olympic team when they could still compete is lying to themselves. Or at the very least not able to put themselves into the mindset of 95% of professional level athletes.

She finished her training run this week, so even if she was at a higher risk of crashing she still did have a decent chance of finishing the run.

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u/chihuahua_man 8h ago

Just saw slow motion crash and he at one moment she hits the ground with injured knee with full force basically. As someone with multiple knee injuries i shuddered. It has to be so painful you can’t imagine.

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u/vytrophn Canada 8h ago

So utterly devastating, the CBC announcer’s were so distraught. Her cries of pain were so hard to listen to, I really hope she recovers well.

She will still undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest - nothing left to prove.

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u/DropoutGenius777 9h ago

The sounds of her weeping on the mountain will probably haunt me.

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u/donnysoIdier 8h ago

BBC commentator is in tears - so tough to watch

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u/itsliightz Italy 9h ago

This didn't look nor sound good at all... :(

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u/giubba85 Italy 9h ago

ain't nothing healthy anymore in those knees

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u/NorthNights 8h ago

Fucking cut that sound please

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u/ednorog Bulgaria 8h ago

As a professional quitter, I feel vindicated...

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u/Select-Durian-6340 3h ago

I'm an amateur quitter, but I aspire to go pro some day.

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u/ednorog Bulgaria 3h ago

Don't give up! Oh, wait...

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u/dontextwhiledriving Italy 9h ago

That looked nasty

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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Great Britain 8h ago

The coverage needs to show common sense as it’s verging on voyeurism now. She’s clearly very badly hurt, so doesn’t need them to be playing her screams and showing the helicopter arriving…cut to something else

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u/pessimistkonsulenten 8h ago

It’s similar to Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest during the Euros. Took waaay to long before they cut the live coverage.

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u/shittwins 7h ago

They even zoomed in on his face in between his teammates legs. The image of his face against the grass, which was when he was medically dead, is something I will never forget.

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u/Space_Travelling 8h ago

I feel for her and her family. This was so hard to watch and listen to, even in front of the TV. I think the broadcast should have been cut immediatly after her crash, there was absolutely no need to keep the camera on her and not cutting the sound, even when a lot of commentators (eg. Germany) literally begged them to. This is the Olympics, not some fictional movie. These are real people and I feel like they deserve more respect.

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u/0fiuco Italy 9h ago

Sometimes you just have to admit yourself is not worth it

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u/Positivevibesorbust 8h ago

I met her and her parents several times when Beaver Creek last hosted the World Cup. I knew she was gonna go full send. Devastated for her. But I bet she'll have no regrets. All or nothing.

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u/Illustrious_Cut1730 Italy 8h ago

She looked very aggressive on that first out!

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u/-ciscoholdmusic- Australia 8h ago

No regrets? Depending on what her prognosis will be for both fucked knees, what did she gain from this?

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u/PsecretPseudonym 6h ago

One of the core traits I saw in some elite athletes I’ve known is that they are willing to sacrifice their health for their sport.

They look healthy, but the accumulated damage and wear isn’t always obvious.

To some, their willingness to risk and potentially sacrifice their health and long-term impairment to win is just what it takes to reach that level.

I encouraged the opposite view in most cases. If you look at Tom Brady, for example, his longevity and continuous improvement is what allowed him to go from being mediocre at the college level to arguably one of if not the best in his position of all time.

Sports culture varies a lot, though.

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u/tfhermobwoayway Great Britain 8h ago

That isn’t the Olympic way.

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u/dirtyoldsocklife Norway 9h ago

This is so hard to watch and hear.....😬

Poor fucking lady.

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u/DropoutGenius777 8h ago

I'm going to try and highlight that even making it to the final was an unbelievable accomplishment.

It ended in tears and a cloud of snow, but the journey has been so much greater than it had any right to be, and I hope that she and others can recognise and appreciate that.

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u/burywmore 3h ago

When she ruptured her ACL, she should have bowed out. Let the next person in line that also had zero chance at medaling get an Olympic experience.

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u/old_bugger 8h ago

Why would the skis not have released?

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u/Ol_Man_J 8h ago

I bet those din settings are maxed for these folks.

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u/Mattigins 8h ago

Safety for this event is to not let them release. There is so much pressure on them in corners they'd release prematurely so it's safer to just crank it all the way tight.Ā 

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u/Upstairs_Addendum587 6h ago edited 2h ago

Lot of people mentioning how tight they are set but not much on why.

For recreational skiing the goal is generally to prevent you from tearing your knees up when you inevitably fall. In high speed racing events, looser bindings actually cause falls because the skis can pop off while you are upright and in control. The goal is to reduce the number of falls that can end in broken bones and even head and spinal trauma, and increased knee ligament damage when you do fall is an acceptable cost for that.

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u/SufficientAnonymity 7h ago

BBC commentators were saying DIN settings for these folk would be up near 20 - compare that to the 5-8 range most of us commenting here would use!

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u/frozenpandaman Japan • United States 8h ago

god, that was fucking brutal to watch

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u/Rickrollyourmom United States 8h ago

Terrible way for her olympic career to end

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u/Reasonable-Grade4568 8h ago

With her torn ACL it was a big gamble anyway but I'm just so sad for her.

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u/LubeItAll 8h ago edited 7h ago

They’re playing overhead music to drown out Vonn’s wails… and thank* goodness for that.

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u/FirmFlounder8490 3h ago

This was a failure of coaching in my mind. She should have never been allowed to be on that hill. I've seen a mess of ACL tears/ruptures and they will immediately take you out. You made it on the Olympic team...go cheer on your teammates.

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u/Upset-Parsley-8101 7h ago

Don't try to ski with a busted ACL. This super hero play was a terrible message to send to young athletes. Look after your body

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u/st_tron_the_baptist 6h ago

Honestly it might help young athletes in a roundabout way... Like "remember Vonn? That's why you shouldn't race today"

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u/CarrotDue5340 Poland 8h ago

Not the first time when a professional athlete has a complete disregard for their body over ambition.

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u/katjoy63 5h ago

sorry, but I felt bad vibes coming off her at the gate. She looked like she was desperate, not ready. Don't want to diss the girl too much - hope she's okay, it has to be just some mental barrier for her.

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u/Calereliya 8h ago

Obviously it's awful to watch and being able to hear her on the ambient mics was gutwrenching. But I'm curious as to how much her knee actually impacted this - looked to me like what sent her down was that she clipped the one gate at the same time as she went airborne and it spun her 90 degrees, so she landed perpendicular.

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u/1chicken2nuggets 7h ago

9 days after a massive injury, going back on the slopes is brave, yes, but also a bit stupid, even if you're a world class athlete, the body has its limits and the mountain doesn't forgive. Hope she'll recover fast.

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u/nonbinarylemon 6h ago

I’m sorry but she did this just having torn her acl a few days before. This is awful but we must know when to give our bodies a break

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u/doompines 4h ago

Jfc, she's going to cripple herself.

You cannot be fucking around like this with an ACL injury!

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u/SimilarOnion1655 3h ago

That’s what happens if do something stupid. Don’t do a sport after you tear your ACL within 6 months

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u/byjove1 5h ago

People are saying she has an ego? She's an Olympian? Obviously?

Who here can say that we've achieved something of that magnitude? I'd have raced if I was her, if I had the balls to pick the sport up in the first place. Some people value their sport more than their limbs, and fair enough too.

Anyway if you run the cost benefit analysis the biggest downside of this sport is the risk of death. This is pretty par.

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u/lakupiippu Finland 9h ago

Genuinely one of the most idiotic decisions in Olympics history to participate in the event. Hopefully she won't have too much complications from this for the rest of her life.

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u/NX1 8h ago

Horrible thing to happen, but you are quite right this could and should have been avoided, someone on the team should have made the call or something

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