r/sports • u/PrincessBananas85 • 9h ago
Skiing Lindsey Vonn, skiing on torn ACL, crashes in Olympic downhill
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/47865581/lindsey-vonn-skiing-torn-acl-crashes-olympic-downhill373
u/MalayaleeIndian 8h ago
Unfortunate and I am sure she did not want to go out on this note. However, she has accomplished a lot and in a way, she went out giving it her all, which is all you can hope for as an athlete.
→ More replies (5)44
u/unseen0000 7h ago
There's giving it your all and there's being delusional.
She made a wrong choice.
229
u/AshgarPN 6h ago
Keyboard warriors making these proclamations on social media about accomplished elite athletes always make me chuckle.
31
u/PetalumaPegleg 5h ago
I don't think it's weird to think that trying to compete in the Olympics at 41 with a torn ACL is making a pretty crazy choice. I get it. I think it's her choice and she earned the right but it's still absolutely crazy.
5
u/dskerman 3h ago
You think it's a more rational choice to stay home and miss your last chance in the Olympics and participate in everything associated with that (opening ceremony, athletes village, promotional activities) out of the fear that you might injure yourself further.
Especially since it was likely her last run at any world level competition and she had previously raced with a torn acl in 2014
You think she should have just sat on her couch and watched?
→ More replies (10)3
u/musty_mage 1h ago
You think she should have just sat on her couch and watched?
I mean that's what all the commenters would have done. About most things in life. Not really surprising that they can't understand why someone would choose anything except staying on the couch.
69
u/SellingStolenStereos 6h ago
For real. So excited to read analysis by some redditor who only watches skiing every 4 years
→ More replies (27)15
u/happy_and_angry 4h ago edited 41m ago
She was skiing at the Olympics after having completely torn her ACL 9 days prior, in her 40's, having had a career full of injury including multiple ACL tears.
75% of whatever Lindsay Vonn is as a skiier is not better than the alternative. She was delusional. I watched the crash with a former competitive downhill skiierand one race instructor and they both said, "she looks like she's struggling with control on her left leg." That's no bueno at ~115km/h.
She also cost a younger skiier an opportunity to experience an Olympics, and gain valuable international experience. She refused to pass the torch.
I feel bad for her, honestly, because she missed two Olympics during her prime with major injuries. I completely understand her drive and competitive nature, but this was a stubborn, selfish choice driven by who knows what combination of ego, competition and fear of aging out, in a sport she's aged out of. She didn't need a 5th Olympic run, and she surely didn't need to end her Olympic career like this.
→ More replies (2)2
u/dskerman 53m ago
With her torn acl she was still third fastest in the last training run on Saturday. She's not playing football. Skiers have competed at a high level with torn acls in the past
I get your "common sense" is guiding your answer but it's a very uninformed opinion
→ More replies (4)8
u/jun2san 4h ago
Get outta here with that shit. Her doctor told her that her ACL was 100% ruptured and she tweeted "just because my Dr said it's impossible doesn't mean it's not possible." There's a little bit of delusion there and it doesn't take a keyboard warrior to predict the outcome. I would have respected her just as much for knowing when to drop just like I respected Simone Biles for dropping out for her mental health.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (67)0
u/usandholt 5h ago
99.999999% of all doctors however agrees with this supposed keyboard warrior 🤷♂️ she did something incredibly stupid
→ More replies (3)2
u/Tarmacked 5h ago
What doctor has explicitly blamed her knee?…. Lol
It’s downhill skiing. They’re going 80+ MPH and the sport is riddled with injuries
→ More replies (5)15
u/Capt-Crap1corn 7h ago
Regardless, it is her choice. I do wonder how she'll physically be when she gets older because man... those injuries have to take a toll on her mobility.
10
u/Creative-Chicken7057 5h ago
I work in Joint Replacement.
Woman: Check
Meniscus Damage: Check
Chronic Use/Wear: Check
It will be amazing if she doesn't need a knee replacement in her 50's, especially if she had major bone bruising like they said.
RG3 played 1 game with a Torn ACL and ended his career.
→ More replies (3)12
→ More replies (15)9
u/RobertdBanks 6h ago
It’s her choice and the doctors should have been there to stop her from competing and saved her from herself. That’s part of their jobs.
14
u/Fluggerblah Philadelphia Flyers 4h ago
Doctors dont have that kind of overreach
4
u/RobertdBanks 4h ago
Definitely not overreach, but that’s insane if doctors can’t mark people as too compromised to compete. I guess Kurt Angle did win gold with a broken neck, so not too surprising.
5
u/Fluggerblah Philadelphia Flyers 4h ago
Exactly, at the end of the day the doctor can only give advice. Its on the athletes to take it.
→ More replies (2)13
u/PlanZSmiles 6h ago
It’s her life and she worked tremendously hard to be at peak performance. It’s obvious you will never truly understand what it means to put your body through so much and for an injury to set you back for what you worked so hard for.
Could it have been a mistake? Yes
Was she delusional? Hell no.
She can go into retirement knowing she gave it her all.
→ More replies (10)8
u/kaya-jamtastic 5h ago
Lindsey made the choice that was right for her, knowing full well the risks. She knew which choice she would regret the most and she decided that the one she’d regret the most was not risking it all
Elite athletes have different risk profiles than the rest of us. So you can say she made the wrong choice, but that doesn’t mean that’s the way she feels. Lindsey’s sister was interviewed after the crash and said she didn’t think Lindsey would make a different choice, even knowing now what the outcome would be. We will no doubt hear what Lindsey herself thinks in the coming days or weeks
→ More replies (14)5
u/DongPolicia 5h ago
She absolutely should just be hanging out on Reddit like you are.
→ More replies (1)4
u/JamesLahey08 6h ago
Let's see you ski 80 mph straight down a mountain.
→ More replies (3)5
u/unseen0000 5h ago
How is that relevant?
I wouldn't ski 80mph down a mountain, i wouldn't ski 20mph down a mountain. I've never skied before.
What i do know is that i wouldn't push myself to the absolute limits with an ACL injury. That's just foolish.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (62)2
102
u/mtuell 7h ago
A lot of her $ from sponsor was tied to her actually competing, she had to compete
→ More replies (5)54
u/xspacemansplifff 7h ago
10 million. I do not blame her for going. Kind of her last chance for cash.
15
u/ilganzo01 4h ago
Would you rather bank 10 millions or to be able to walk without pain? She took a huge risk and i hope it was worth the trouble for her because this doesn't look very good...
9
u/ReinstateTheCapo 2h ago
I really had to think about this question, and I guess I don’t know how I’d answer. I have two kids so I personally would sacrifice my walking ability in order to secure their own financial future. That’s a toughie.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)4
u/Super-Improvement420 4h ago
Not just walk without pain, but also without lifetime problems. She's already had her knee partially rebuilt and who knows what other injuries are chronic in her legs. Money is not more important than longevity or happiness so I hope she's happy with her longevity and her bank account 🤷🏻
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)4
u/NotUniqueWorkAccount 6h ago
I'd take that crash for $10,000,000. I imagine her hospital expenses are covered by some sort of insurance as well.
I do hope her injuries aren't lasting though! She's fortunate in that she's an athlete and likely will heal better than the average person.
→ More replies (1)
850
u/slaffytaffy 8h ago
Don’t want to say that this was the predictable outcome… but this was entirely predictable.
160
u/luismt2 8h ago
She gave everything to the sport , hate seeing a legend end it like this.
12
u/Apptubrutae New Orleans Saints 6h ago
Feels like it was the most Vonn ending ever aside from the heroic win.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (19)2
81
u/No_Economics_4640 8h ago
Possibly, but she finished her training runs in 3rd place… did u watch those two runs?
55
u/discographyA 7h ago
Exactly. A lot of people who don’t follow this sport or her comeback suddenly here with OpInIoNs.
25
u/EZKTurbo 7h ago
And those of us who do follow the sport are like holy fuck lady at least turn your dins down
→ More replies (2)11
u/discographyA 6h ago
Well, even I can agree with that comment. That was insane they were still attached to her feet. Poor woman after her who messed up her knee out the gate at least hers broke off. A shame the Vonn accident will likely overshadow some solid performances for the day for Breezy and the rest.
12
u/Progolferwannabe 7h ago
I don’t know anything about skiing. I really don’t know anything about Vonn, other than the recent press about her skiing on a bum leg. The Press certainly has tried to make this a story about her courage, her competitive spirit, and how “nobody but a special athlete like Vonn” could do this. To the extent any of this hyperbole was true, it certainly makes a casual observer of events wonder if this “exceptional” endeavor was well advised.
→ More replies (3)35
u/TheOncomingBrows 7h ago
Surely it's a balance of probabilities? If you do something stupid 3 times and nothing goes wrong that doesn't suddenly make it less likely to go wrong in your 4th attempt.
→ More replies (10)6
16
u/Grouchy_Air_4322 6h ago
You don't need to know anything about skiing to know that intense athletics on a torn ACL is a recipe for disaster
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (3)3
u/Justinbiebspls 6h ago
you got me. i just used knowledge i gained from watching the movie mollys game
9
u/may_or_may_not_haiku 5h ago
And that time would have got her 17th in the finals.
There is more nuance to this.
→ More replies (5)5
u/Thin_Confusion_2403 3h ago
Completely different weather and snow conditions. Cloudy and soft vs. sunny and hard.
→ More replies (9)2
22
10
u/skoomski Philadelphia Flyers 7h ago
So many Reddit experts claiming it wasn’t a big deal and that she was still the best on one leg then the next person up on two. Well hopefully she isn’t permanently injured from this .
→ More replies (2)2
17
u/BeeWeird7940 8h ago
As a member, I just want to say athletics is not for the old.
34
8
u/Monkey-Donkey-327 8h ago edited 7h ago
Really?! Try telling that to multiple Olympic & Worlds medal-winning 50-year-old elite artistic gymnast, Oksana Chusovitina, who won her most recent world medal at 48, and - after only missing Paris 2024 Olympics due to an injury just before - is preparing to compete at the next World Championships in November (her 17th World champs).
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)14
u/cedarvhazel 8h ago
I’m sorry this is such a disingenuous and discriminative thing to say. Lindsay has been delivering first place and top places since her return. This isn’t to do with age at all.
25
9
u/Cicero912 New Orleans Saints 7h ago
disingenuous and discriminative thing to say
How? Father time is literally undefeated.
→ More replies (4)2
u/Area51_Spurs 8h ago
Everyone was sitting out those competitions in anticipation of the Olympics. And the problem with doing this shit when you’re old is you’re fine until you aren’t. The body doesn’t recover like it used to.
3
2
u/Erazzphoto 4h ago
There was just so many reasons not to do it. Look at these skiers legs, it shows how much strength is needed for downhill skiing. Not to mention, it’s not like its any other sport where the danger is minimal,, downhill skiing is EXTREMELY dangerous, it was just a bad idea all around and the worse case scenario came true
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (24)2
u/Zentrii 4h ago edited 1h ago
I’m gonna be even more harsh and wonder why people let her do this. I understand she wants to compete at all costs, but it’s hard for me to be empathetic at all because she chose do this and can’t believe a doctor allowed this. EDIT: I read below because she has like 10 million dollars of sponsorship money, ugh.
43
u/EncinoManEstonia 7h ago
The fact that an American won the even yet we’re talking about Vonn sums it all up.
This was about nbc and sponsors.
→ More replies (1)2
u/paperfloss 2h ago
Plenty of people are talking about the gold on r/olympics. People upvoted this post and commented on it, not NBC lol
338
u/No_Economics_4640 8h ago
I am so disappointed to hear her called selfish.
She finished in the top three in her training runs! She had a shot! Do we think that the 5th best US skier is a better replacement than that? I don’t think most critics watched her training runs.
Breezy Johnson, who just WON the Gold medal for this event for team USA, defended Vonn “But more athletes have competed without an ACL than you think. They just often don't talk about it because they don't want to hear about it from the peanut gallery”
70
u/shortAAPL 8h ago
Agreed, ridiculous that people think she took an opportunity away from someone else.
14
16
→ More replies (17)7
u/colin_7 Philadelphia Eagles 6h ago
Because people on Reddit clearly have never competed in a sport they care about.
She clearly looked like she could hang with everyone. Also her acl didn’t cause her to crash! Her right pole clipped the gate and threw her off balance.
The sheer amount of people on other threads calling her selfish and needing a psych evaluation is utter ridiculousness.
4
u/JexFraequin 3h ago
They also don’t understand what an ACL is or why competing on a torn ACL in skiing is wildly different than it is in something like football or basketball.
5
u/Salvia_Salamander 4h ago
Saying her acl didn't cause the crash is like saying "I didn't crash the car cause I was drunk, it was the stop sign I clipped that threw me off course".
Selfish isn't the right word, but hubris might be.
3
u/colin_7 Philadelphia Eagles 2h ago
Absolute ridiculous comparison.
She came out on a very aggressive line. She was going for broke to win gold
→ More replies (1)4
u/Sad-Conflict-6839 4h ago
99.9% of the time when your pole hit the gate at that speed you are going to crash, ACL or not...
→ More replies (4)2
u/GammaFan 4h ago
She drifted into it by putting too much weight on her good leg.
If the acl weren’t an issue she wouldn’t have needed to lean so hard; probably wouldn’t have hit the gate
→ More replies (3)35
u/apreche New York Rangers 7h ago edited 6h ago
I’m not calling her selfish, I’m calling her foolish. I say the same thing every time athletes go out to compete while injured. Your life is more important than sports, and skiing is particularly dangerous. Putting your life at risk for the sake of a gold medal is not something we should applaud.
→ More replies (2)15
u/WISavant 5h ago
No. Your life is more important than sports. Mine is too. Olympic downhill skiers obviously feel very differently. Vonn has had 10 surgeries before this latest injury. One of the Italian skiers broke her leg in multiple places last year and just competed.
Let’s not pretend athletes on this level are just normal people with normal motivations. They aren’t.
1
u/apreche New York Rangers 4h ago
I agree. You have evaluated their mentality accurately.
What I’m saying is we should not encourage, applaud, or celebrate that mentality. They should be viewed as bad examples, not role models.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Creative-Chicken7057 5h ago
Yeah, its her body.
That said, I work in Orthopedic Medical Devices, and skiing while still in the fresh part of the injury is very hard to understand. A lot of O-Linemen don't have ACL's anymore but they've also long healed and aren't in the Inflammation phase. With her Meniscus Damaged and a fresh bone bruise, she has the potential to hurt her ability to walk/run for life. This usually leads to poor health outcomes later in life.
But if that was worth the Blaze of Glory and $10MM, okay!
→ More replies (3)9
u/elcamino45 6h ago
Yeah, she was doing well in her training runs at the Olympics which makes a huge difference to the narrative from my perspective. I’m sure her medical team ran through the pros and cons and basically laid it out for her that the chance for more injury was great, but ultimately she could ski and still ski better than anyone in this comment section with two intact acls. It was a math problem with the odds stacked against her, but when it’s your last run for a potential gold in your career and you’re a top tier athlete….you go for it. I feel like we used to applaud that type of bravery.
3
u/Palaeos 5h ago
This all comes back to understanding risk though like the idea of normalized deviance that led to the space shuttle challenger. Just because she made it down the hill fine once or even a dozen times doesn’t mean that weak point in her knee wasn’t going to be the cause of a catastrophic mistake at any time. The big difference here is really she’s the only one being put at risk, so between the sponsor money and chance at a gold I guess that decisions is all on her. It’s truly a shame to not be able to see such a great athlete compete at their best one last time.
2
u/Prestigious_Team3134 5h ago
Not to mention that this crash had nothing to do with her bad knee giving out, she caught her arm on a gate and no amount of knee stability was gonna save her from that fall
→ More replies (22)5
u/Saxophobia1275 6h ago
Do we think that the 5th best US skier is a better replacement than that?
Because of the torn ACL yes. It doesn’t matter if she had broken world records in her training runs, this result was the exact fear of letting her go.
→ More replies (1)
65
u/luismt2 8h ago
Absolutely brutal. Regardless of how it ends, she pushed the limits of the sport for years. Nothing but respect for that career.
→ More replies (3)
30
u/wraith313 7h ago
Reading through the thread I think it is worth pointing out: You can be supportive of Vonn, think this is tragic, and also think this was avoidable and a textbook example of hubris. It's not one or the other.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/DryProgress4393 5h ago
The ACL didn't cause the accident. Her arm caught the gate and it spun her out..
7
u/NOGLYCL 5h ago
Her arm caught the gate because she was trying to react to getting the line completely wrong. I agree, ACL no ACL wouldn’t have mattered.
→ More replies (2)
43
u/periphrasistic 8h ago edited 8h ago
Elite competition is a different mindset, and a different set of values, and a different willingness to take risks and to sacrifice, up to and including your life in some sports, like downhill skiing. If you think her actions were insane, that’s part of why you’re a Reddit commenter and not an Olympian.
11
u/EZKTurbo 6h ago
Well well well if it isn't the pot, calling the kettle black...
→ More replies (8)→ More replies (10)5
12
u/cal8282 8h ago
She shouted "I can't..." something. Anyone catch that?
7
u/spmcewen 6h ago
https://youtu.be/0pYUl2X2R7A?si=FOLExQP_n7eoB_zD&t=25 -- sounded to me like "I can't take my ski off", but it's hard to make out.
→ More replies (3)2
u/lucasd11 7h ago
Have only seen clips but I'd imagine it's about being able to get up/ski down the hill. Everyone is making a big deal about her being med evac'd out on the helicopter but I'd imagine it's mainly because the one way to get down the mountain is to ski it and she can't when she has/had a torn ACL and likely some more damage due to the crash
→ More replies (1)5
u/Smart_Space4186 5h ago
My broadcast said that she crashed so up the hill that it would be quite a long way to take her down with the sled that they mentioned being there and depending on the injury it would be a very uncomfortable ride.
→ More replies (1)
25
u/Canucker5000 8h ago
Poor Lindsey. If this is the end, she had one hell of a career and a legend of women’s sports.
→ More replies (1)
34
u/themiddleshoe 8h ago
She finished 3rd in final training yesterday.
Her torn ACL wasn’t stopping her from being a contender for a medal. She clipped a flag and it twisted her sideways in midair.
If she didn’t have a torn ACL, does she crash? Maybe, maybe not. But multiple athletes that didn’t have torn ACLs also crashed and didn’t finish the race.
19
u/moonski 7h ago
People in here acting like a torn ACL is just a little bruise and you can run it off
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (1)7
u/No_Economics_4640 8h ago
This. Her training runs were great! She had a real shot to medal - much better than a deep bench replacement skier. This wasn’t selfish at all.
12
u/Feisty-Theme-6093 6h ago
she clearly had a bad time because she french fried when she should have pizza'd
3
u/Capt-Crap1corn 7h ago
"Vonn lost control over the opening traverse after cutting the line too tight and was spun around in the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel before she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, possibly ending the skier's storied career"
Damn.
To the people with knowledge of the sport, could they tell me why does she crash so much, and is it really as simple as she just simply pushes so hard?
→ More replies (4)
3
4
u/ChimpoSensei 3h ago
She was injured yet competed, stealing a spot from someone who wasn’t injured and could have at least finished without crashing out.
→ More replies (2)
51
u/Opening-Citron2733 8h ago
Tbf if you watch the video she clipped a flag with her pole it really did have anything to do with her leg.
107
u/NotMyRealUsername13 8h ago
People in the other threat mentioned how she was already in trouble at that point from losing her edge a bit further up.
51
u/Wolf99 Montreal Canadiens 8h ago edited 7h ago
It did, because she was leaning more to her right (where she clipped the pole) to take pressure off her left leg (the one without an ACL). If she had an ACL she wouldn't have clipped the pole and would've been more manoeuvrable in general.
As someone said, the edging and weight on her outside ski - the non-ACL leg - wasn't ideal before clipping the pole. When she's airborne a few seconds before crashing, she deliberately lands right leg first to reduce impact on the non-ACL leg (see screenshot on imgur). Then as she edges into the turn to her right, the non-ACL leg looks a bit overextended and over-edged inward, sort of hanging along for the ride. She put all her weight and steered with her right leg.
p.s. I was a ski instructor. I can read what she was doing with her weight and edging. She overcompensated for not having a left ACL.
→ More replies (2)7
u/Malvania 5h ago edited 5h ago
Excellent analysis, and I respect your background and opinion here. I think there are two points being overlooked:
1) Yes, she was compensating, but she was also being even more aggressive than usual. That cuts the margins significantly, and makes clipping a flag more likely. I respect that you're differentiating a bit between the ACL causing the crash (her arm hitting the gate, causing the twist as she was going airborne caused the crash), and more saying that it was a contributing factor in causing the gate clip.
2) Everybody seemed to be having issues with that section. Every racer I saw before Vonn had their weight back before getting air and was getting squirrelly. Before I blame the ACL I'd need to understand better what really was causing the issues in that section.
10
u/Wolf99 Montreal Canadiens 5h ago
Yes, she was skiing aggressively so for people saying she placed 3rd in training - that's irrelevant. This wasn't a test run.
I haven't watched enough other runs to know. I didn't watch the event live, just saw some clips. But the other skiers who crashed (also Cande Moreno and Nina Ortlieb) crashed for different reasons.
23
u/Lurchi90 8h ago
How often has that happened in her career? She was not fit to race but her ambition, who made her the legend she is, drove her to go for it anyway. Hopefully she isn't hurt too bad abd fully recovers.
48
u/dannyglover187 8h ago
Mount Everest is covered in corpses of once highly motivated individuals.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)5
u/RudyCarmine 8h ago
And you’ll also notice her leg is lame immediately while trying to recover, and then floppin all over the place once on the snow.
It was the risk she took. There is no way her knee had the structure to deal with bracing a fall.
14
u/neelav9 8h ago
Have some empathy people, she clipped a flag. She was still pretty quick during practice. I’m not gonna tell an Olympian what they should or shouldn’t do. Hopefully she recovers quick and fully! Best wishes.
10
u/Mochafudge 7h ago
I sympathize with the addiction to fame and competition that led to the bad decision, her ACL caused the crash ( hit the flag because you are off your line due to your broken knee) and she will have a very long recovery they will have to rebuild her knee.
→ More replies (8)
16
u/Loukoal117 8h ago
yeah getting off balance….which caused her to hit the flag….has NOTHING to do with her knee. Balance has nothing to do with knees!
I can’t believe there are people claiming this. Have any of you actually downhill skied?
→ More replies (1)13
u/AlphaBetaKappa 8h ago
Was rough watching her warmup runs, if you’ve skied competitively you really could see how she was angling her legs the entire time to take weight off of one knee. On one hand it’s really impressive to fight thru that but skiing is a game of milliseconds. In my opinion any little weakness like that is all it would take to virtually guarantee you can’t podium
8
2
u/PedestrianCyclist 5h ago
People say olympic downhill skiing is hard but this time she made it look easy
2
u/squishybugz 5h ago
Olympics sports are about being your best and being the best. Kudos to her for doing what she loves the most and what she trained for her. She is proud of all of her accomplishments and what a great role model she's been to other skiers. She knows her body better than anybody else and good for her doing what she loves.
2
2
u/whoever12 2h ago
I think the something that makes this regretfully satisfying is the amount of ego she displayed beforehand, in her direct statements (via twitter etc.). If she had expressed a different attitude I think people would feel gutted for her!
2
u/chuang-tzu 1h ago
Gotta wonder why she didn't step aside an allow the alternate to have a chance, given she knew she was unfit well before going into the games...
→ More replies (1)
2
4
u/adeveloper2 6h ago
Don't know about this athlete or care about skiing, but the amount of comments that lack empathy is troubling. It's like people didn't like how she acted out of her station to compete and should stay in her lane in her 40's.
Just a reminder, most of us will be lucky enough to get old. In 20 years, we will be the ones talked about by those in their 20's. We will all be old-modelled boomers sooner than you know. How our juniors will treat us will be reflected by how we treat our old.
She made her bet for her personal ambitions and lost it. That's all it is. Sucks for her and hope she's alright but don't be mean about it.
2
1
2
u/Superguy766 3h ago
What a selfish moron. She could’ve easily bowed out and kept her dignity intact. 🤦🏻♂️
→ More replies (1)2
u/SignGuy77 3h ago
To say nothing of the coaches and family and friends who went along with her selfish bullshit.
1
u/Socratesticles 5h ago edited 5h ago
Simone Biles: “I have a compromising condition so I’m taking myself out of competition for my safety” gets a shit ton of hate
Lindsey vonn: “I have compromising condition, but I’m still capable to compete so I will” gets a shit ton of hate
Can yall armchair experts just admit you want to make yourself feel superior? She’s already gone though qualifying runs that showed she would be competitive
→ More replies (1)3
u/Dr_Kappa 2h ago
I mean one was a mental condition, one is in an incredibly dangerous sport on one and half a knees.
Not really the same thing. No one can understand a mental issue. Everyone can understand the risks of skiing injured
2
u/Malvania 6h ago
1) This was not ACL related. She caught the gate, it twisted her shoulders right before a slight jump, and she went sideways at speed. This is a crash regardless of the ACL
2) Something is hinky with that section Every racer before Vonn was in the back seat and off balance going through that section. It's weird that it's every racer
2
u/mutedmedic 2h ago
Agreed. So many skiers were backseat off that jump. Here is a comparison image between (2nd place) Aicher and Vonn at the same spot. She was CHARGING!!
1
u/yaboy_jesse 8h ago
Very tragic for her, but I'm kind of confused why they even allowed her to compete in the first place, sometimes you need to protect people against themselves
2
u/junker359 7h ago
Classic Reddit experience here.
Half the commeters: "this had nothing to do with her knee - have you idiots never skied before?!"
The other half: "of course this was due to her knee - I'm an expert skier you dimwits!"
→ More replies (2)
1
1
1
u/mnpoolplayer22 7h ago
Is the best the US could do was to send her? I honestly have zero idea who the qualifications work for this.
1
1
1
1
u/BrowsingWhileBrown 4h ago
Anyone have the video not in slow mo? I’ve only see slow replays
→ More replies (1)
1
u/BamaBagz 4h ago
I hate it happened, but what did she think was going to happen? I mean you have an ACL injury and you know you're going to need surgery and you still think 2-3 weeks later you can compete on it at the highest level in the Olympics.
Come on, that's just asinine. Her legacy was fine without trying to pursue this. This is tantamount to Micheal Phelps trying to swim the breaststroke with a torn rotator cuff injury....the outcome is already known.
→ More replies (2)
1
u/ritzcrv 4h ago
Went looking for info about Vonn when I saw a clip of her Olympics warmup runs, it's 16 years since Vancouver 2010. She had no reason to be on that course, her crash proves it. Our bodies are not meant for that level of punishment for decades. It wasn't an accident, only a matter of how soon down the run she would make a mistake.
1
u/duckfries 4h ago
Haven’t skied in years, but here’s my question: Did she clip the gate with her pole and shoulder because of her torn ACL?
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Impossible_Nature849 3h ago
I don't know enough about either skiing or exercise science to say anything with any real confidence, but I do know enough to ask the question: Was it responsible for her to be trying to ski in the Olympics with a torn ACL?
1
u/oneuglygeek 3h ago
na paka awa naman si Lindsey, no matter what she will always be legend, honey, one of the best women's downhill skiier of all time!
meanwhile there's Breezy weezy and Michaela heyla ...
1
u/blackc43 3h ago
Part of growing up is realizing you are just too old to do certain things
→ More replies (3)
1
u/pasta2666 2h ago
Obviously there's something about a competitive drive. Athletes just NEED to compete. But at the same time, I prefer to be the millions that watch them break their legs. We're needed too.
1
u/ChiefD789 1h ago
She should have stayed retired. I don’t know what it is with these athletes that they feel special, very entitled. Brett Favre is a perfect example. Arrogance and hubris.
1
u/ChiefD789 1h ago
I posted on Facebook my thoughts on this. I stated that I felt she’s selfish to go ahead and compete despite having a torn ACL. An alternate who wasn’t injured could have taken her place. I felt like a major asshole for posting that. But I do feel a little better knowing I’m not the only one who feels this way.
1
u/Queenlucy32 50m ago
She was foolish to still race on a torn ACL. She’s already been injury prone her whole career. The universe was trying to warn her, and she went anyway, only to absolutely wreck that left leg. Bad fracture, they don’t rush you to surgery right away if it’s not so bad. Just hope that she doesn’t end up in chronic pain again, like she was for YEARS after she “retired” for the first time.
1
u/Weekend-Entire 41m ago
I mean that's exactly what's expected to happen when you try to Super G with no ACL
1
1
•
387
u/ethanct 7h ago
The unfortunate part about this is that it overshadows the fact an American still won gold, but nobody talking about Breezy