Lindsey Vonn’s season started late after she broke her ankle in a training crash. It wrapped up much earlier than anticipated because of another wipeout.
This latest spill came with her popularity peaking — she appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue — and another overall World Cup title there for the taking.
Now, the big questions loom: How bad is she hurt and how can she stay healthy for a full season?
Photo: AP
After all, Vonn’s ailments are piling up like her accomplishments. On Wednesday she said that she was leaving the racing circuit early after an MRI revealed three significant breaks where the shinbone meets the knee joint. She hurt it in a crash over the weekend and competed the next day, when she thought it was only a hairline fracture.
With eight races to go, Vonn leads the overall World Cup standings with 1,235 points, followed closely by Lara Gut of Switzerland with 1,207. Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany is third with 914.
However, Vonn said she is thinking long-term.
More specifically, toward the World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, next season and the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. To suffer further damage could have led to surgery and possibly been career threatening.
“I cannot take that risk,” the 31-year-old said on Facebook. “While I am confident that I’m making the right decision, it still doesn’t make this decision any easier.”
The four-time overall World Cup champion crashed on Saturday during a super-G race in Andorra after hitting a patch of soft snow. X-rays showed a hairline fracture in her tibial plateau, but she raced on Sunday in the combined event, extending her overall lead by finishing 13th.
On Wednesday, she revealed the injury was much worse.
“Those images showed that there was not just one hairline fracture, but in fact three,” Vonn said. “The fractures are not hairline, but instead they are significant enough that they are not sufficiently stable to permit me to safely continue skiing.”
Vonn has had quite a season, adding nine more World Cup wins to her resume to bring the record to 76 and close the gap on the all-time mark of 86 victories held by Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden.
She also won a downhill in Cortina, Italy, to eclipse Annemarie Moser-Proell’s mark of 36 career wins in skiing’s marquee event.
Vonn then won a super-G for her 11th career victory at the Italian resort, breaking the record of retired Austrian standout Renate Goetschl and captured the overall downhill discipline title this season, which was her 20th crystal globe.
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