Lindsey Vonn airlifted to hospital and race cancelled after crash just days before Winter Olympics

Team USA icon Lindsey Vonn crashed out of a women’s downhill World Cup event just days before the Winter Olympics.

The 41-year-old slammed into safety nets in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, just seconds into her run.

AFP

Vonn remained down for several minutes and clutched her left knee as she slowly made it to the finish area.

She greeted the crowd despite grimacing in pain and was airlifted to hospital, where. U.S. Ski and Snowboard said that she was being ‘evaluated.’ 

“She has some pain so it’s better to have some checks, the physio did some checks they seemed OK but there were things he was not 100% sure so it was good to have it checked [at the hospital],” Vonn’s coach, two-time Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal, told Reuters.

The race was cancelled shortly afterwards due to low visibility and unsafe conditions after three of the first six skiers fell.

AFP

“You can’t see, and it’s bumpy everywhere,” France’s Romane Miradoli said. “We just couldn’t see well.”

Vonn was the sixth athlete to take the course and faces an agonizing wait to discover the extent of her injury.

She is back in the US Winter Olympic squad, six years after her initial retirement scheduled to compete in her first Games since 2018.

She has three Olympic medals, winning gold in the women’s downhill and bronze in the super-G in 2010, and having missed 2014 through injury she returned to add downhill bronze in 2018.

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