“Lindsey sustained a mild strain to her right knee, a partial tear to her right ACL, minor facial abrasions and scapular contusions from her fall,” her publicist said in a statement. “She needs to rest for a few days and then will pursue aggressive physical therapy and will determine the next time she is able to compete after seeing how she responds to the treatment.
Lindsey Vonn has been the face of U.S. skiing, but her ability to defend her Olympic crown is in doubt.
Vonn was already in a hurry to regain her No. 1 standing in the sport when she crashed during a training run Tuesday at Copper Mountain in Colorado. She was evacuated from the mountain and evaluated by her doctor, noted Vail surgeon Bill Sterett.
The new ACL injury comes 9 1/2 months after Vonn blew out that ligament and others in a gruesome wreck at the world championships in Austria on Feb. 5. After surgery, Vonn embarked on an ambitious rehabilitation program that got her back on snow by Aug. 31 in Portill
Lindsey Vonn has won an American record 59 World Cup races during record career.
She now has less than three months to heal before the Winter Games commence on Feb. 7, and even less time to earn some of the limited number of start positions the United States has for each medal event.
It’s not yet clear when Vonn will be able to resume training, but even before the accident, her rivals were already leading her in race-readiness, having been able to spend the summer and fall testing new equipment combinations, an essential part of racing.
Whether a relative lack of familiarity with her equipment set-up contributed to the crash is not yet clear; her team has not released information about the crash, and Vonn has not yet spoken publicly about it.
In recent weeks Vonn, 29, had skipped the first two races on the World Cup circuit in favor of training, but was planning to compete Nov. 29 when the tour’s first downhill race takes place at Beaver Creek, Colo.
