Gold medalist skier Lindsey Vonn
crashed during the FIS Alpine Ski
World Championship Super-G race in
Schladming, Austria, Tuesday and
suffered a season-ending injury to
her right knee.
The World Cup champion from Vail,
Colo., lost balance on her right leg
after coming around a turn and
trying to stick a landing after a jump.
Her right ski came off immediately,
and Vonn slid down the race course
for several feet on her back before
hitting a gate and coming to a stop.
According to U.S. Ski Team Medical
Director Kyle Wilkens, the 28-year-
old competitive skier tore the
anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and
the medial collateral ligament (MCL)
of her right knee and suffered a
lateral tibial plateau fracture.
"She will be out for the remainder of
this season but is expected to return
to racing for the 2013-14 Audi FIS
World Cup season and the 2014
Olympic Winter Games in Sochi,
Russia," the U.S. team said in a
statement.
Vonn had posted the fastest first
interval and was having a strong run
when she went down. She was
immediately attended to by race
medical officials and then taken to
the hospital by helicopter, as is
standard protocol, the U.S. team said.
Vonn is a highly decorated skiing
star. With 59 World Cup victories
under her belt, she is one of only five
women to have won World Cup races
in all five disciplines of Alpine skiing
— downhill, super G, giant slalom,
slalom and super combined.
Expected to make a huge showing at
the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics,
Vonn previously took home a gold
medal for downhill skiing and the
bronze for the Super-G race at the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Vonn started racing again in January
after missing a few weeks of the
season to recover from an intestinal
illness, according to the Associated
Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment