Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP) – Lindsey Vonn is convinced that her dream of a medal at the Winter Olympics could still become reality even after knee ligament damage almost forced her to drop out days before the Milan-Cortina Games. And at least one medical specialist agrees. France’s ski team doctor Stephane Bulle told AFP that a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in Vonn’s left knee doesn’t automatically exclude her from having a chance in her first Olympics since 2018.
The ACL is crucial for the stabilisation of the knee, and her injury sustained in last week’s World Cup downhill race in Crans Montana, Switzerland, means that her return to the Olympic stage after an improbable comeback from retirement will have to be another battle against the odds. “She’s been so amazing from the start that anything is possible with her. Honestly, anything is possible,” said Bulle. “She knows herself inside and out. She knows exactly where she stands and what happened to her. So I think she’ll give perfect feedback to her medical and paramedical team.
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“You obviously know she wants to compete at the Games and you know she might try to downplay things a little. But overall, she’ll give you good information for predicting what could happen over the next few days,” Bulle added. “If she tells you she feels good, there’s a real opportunity there.”
Vonn has already defied expectations by coming out of retirement to reclaim her position, at the age of 41 and with a titanium implant in her right knee, as the premier woman downhill racer. On Thursday, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion is expected to take part in the first training session for the downhill — her preferred discipline — carrying not just the ACL injury, but also bone bruising and meniscus damage in her left knee. The women’s alpine skiing starts in Cortina with the downhill on Sunday, and Vonn also plans to compete in the team combined event on February 10 and the super-G two days later.
On Tuesday, Vonn’s US teammate Breezy Johnson, the reigning downhill world champion, told reporters that she “tried and failed” in 2022 to ski the iconic Olimpia delle Tofane piste with a torn ACL. “But that doesn’t mean that she can’t do it,” said Johnson. “There are more athletes that ski without ACLs and with knee damage than what we talk about.”
One such example is Vonn’s rival and friend Sofia Goggia, the Italian speed specialist who came back from a serious knee injury to nearly retain her Olympic downhill title in Beijing four years ago. Goggia suffered a minor leg fracture and partial ACL tear at Cortina little more than three weeks before the downhill contest at the 2022 Games but managed to finish just 0.16 seconds behind Swiss winner Corinne Suter to take the silver medal.
Until her crash in Crans Montana, Vonn had been in phenomenal form this season, finishing on the podium in every World Cup downhill race and winning in both St. Moritz and Zauchensee, as well as claiming two more top-three finishes in the super-G discipline. Her successes have been all the more remarkable because she ended a five-year retirement to return to alpine skiing in November 2024, after persistent pain led to surgery to partially replace her right knee earlier that year.
“I never expected to be here. I felt like this was an amazing opportunity to close out my career in a way that I wanted to,” Vonn said on Tuesday. “It hasn’t gone exactly the way I wanted it to. But I don’t want to have any regrets. I’m here. I’m still here. I think I’m still able to fight, I’m still able to try, and I will try as long as I have the ability to.
“I will not go home regretting not trying. I will do everything in my power to be in that starting gate.”
© 2024 AFP
