US ski champion Lindsey Vonn is to miss next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, due to a right knee injury she sustained nearly a year ago, she announced on Tuesday.
“I am devastated to announce that I will not be competing in Sochi,” Vonn said on Facebook. “I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL [anterior cruciate ligament], but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level.”
“I’m having surgery soon so that I can be ready for the World Championships at home in Vail next February,” she added.
“On a positive note, this means there will be an additional spot so that one of my teammates can go for gold,” she said.
The 29-year-old Vonn, who has 59 World Cup race victories to her credit and who is the reigning Olympic downhill champion, badly injured the knee while competing in a super-G at the World Championships in February last year.
After reconstructive surgery on the joint and a lengthy layoff, Vonn returned to World Cup competition at Lake Louise, Canada, early last month, but had injured the same knee again while training in Colorado in November.
At Lake Louise, Vonn was 40th in the first downhill, 11th in a second downhill and fifth in a super-G.
She then competed in a downhill at Val d’Isere in the French Alps just before Christmas, under the watchful eye of boyfriend Tiger Woods, but failed to finish the race as she skied out.
“Unfortunately, I have no ACL and it just gave out on me,” she said at the time.
Vonn said she would compete in just one or two races before the Winter Olympics in the ski resort of Sochi from Feb. 7.
Her absence will deprive the Games of one of the biggest stars and draws in winter sport, with her romance with Woods making headlines worldwide.
US Ski and Snowboard Association head Bill Marolt said he was confident Vonn would be able to bounce back from the injury in time for the next World Cup season later this year.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS