Olympic favorite Lindsey Vonn was taken to a hospital yesterday after hurting her left arm in a crash on the opening run of a World Cup giant slalom.
Vonn started 15th and made a couple of mistakes in the early part of her run, falling more than a second behind the leading time set by Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany. After a sharp left turn, the American lost her balance on a bump and fell backwards, hitting a gate and losing a ski.
The two-time World Cup overall champion remained down for almost 10 minutes receiving first aid. Vonn eventually stood up, put her skis back on and made it to the bottom of the hill with her left arm in a sling.
PHOTO: EPA
“My arm really hurts,” Vonn said as she climbed into an ambulance and headed to the hospital for tests. “I don’t know what has happened. I believe it’s broken.”
The was no official word on Vonn’s status.
Vonn was coming off a successful weekend in Val D’Isere, France, where a victory in the super combined and a third-place finish in a super-G helped her to reclaim the sole lead of the overall World Cup standings ahead of friend and rival Maria Riesch of Germany.
Riesch, who started immediately after Vonn, was distracted by her crash and missed a gate on the middle section of the partly icy Schlossberg course.
“It’s hard to stay focused and keep your concentration during such a break,” said Riesch, who trails Vonn by 50 points in the overall standings.
The 25-year-old Vonn has been considered a medal prospect in all five Alpine events at the Olympics: downhill, super-G, slalom, GS and super combined (one downhill run and one slalom run).
If she is unable to ski in Vancouver, it will be only the latest in a string of Olympic disappointments. Vonn finished with a sixth and 22nd in Salt Lake City in 2002, when she was only 17 years old, and was seventh, eighth and 14th four years later in Turin, Italy.
More than her finishes in Italy, though, Vonn may best be remembered for a highlight-reel crash in which she went tumbling during a downhill training run. After a quick trip to the hospital, Vonn was back racing about 48 hours later.
Her appearance in Vancouver is important to Olympic sponsors, many of which have been building TV and Web ads around her in the run-up to the Games.
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