Only 13 seconds into her descent, American Olympic ski racer Lindsey Vonn’s challenge came to a devastating halt.
Her ski pole clipped the fourth gate, forcing her body off balance as she launched over a jump.
The loss of control sent her crashing heavily onto her right side before she cartwheeled down the slope. When she finally came to a stop, her legs were sprawled awkwardly, the backs of her skis tangled together in the snow.
According to reports, Vonn’s injured left knee, already compromised by a recently torn ACL, twisted outward, while her right knee, reinforced with titanium after previous surgeries, pointed sharply the other way.
‘It’s Heartbreaking’: Vonn’s Teammate
From the top of the mountain, teammate Bella Wright watched the incident unfold while waiting for her own run, struggling to process how quickly everything had changed.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Wright, who watched the crash from the top of the mountain as she waited for her turn to ski.
“Things just happen so quick in this sport. She had incredible speed in that turn and hooked her arm and it’s just over, just like that. After all the preparation, after years of hard work and rehabilitation, all the things.”
“It’s the last thing you want to see somebody go through, the last thing you want to see for Lindsey,” she added.
Vonn was evacuated from the Olimpia della Tofane course by helicopter. In a statement released later by the US Ski & Snowboard Team stated she sustained an injury, but was in stable condition.
Triumph and Tragedy On The Same Mountain
By the time all 36 competitors completed their runs hours later, the final standings reflected alpine skiing’s extremes, elation and despair separated by fractions of seconds.
Breezy Johnson emerged at the top of the leaderboard, completing a remarkable turnaround on the very mountain where she had crashed four years earlier, an accident that ended her hopes of competing at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Her victory made her the first American woman in nearly 16 years to win an Olympic downhill gold medal.
The last American to achieve that milestone was Lindsey Vonn herself. This time, however, her name appeared at the bottom of the results, marked by the stark designation DNF.
