Luca Bruno/Associated Press
Lindsey Vonn was airlifted by helicopter in Schladming, Austria.
SCHLADMING, Austria — The Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn, whose record-breaking ski racing career has frequently mixed stirring triumph with frightening spills, injured two knee ligaments in a tumbling crash Tuesday and may need reconstructive knee surgery. Vonn fell in the super-G of the world Alpine championship, a race contested one year and two days before the scheduled start of the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia.
Vonn, who has won the World Cup overall title four times and has more World Cup victories than any American, is the defending Olympic downhill gold medalist.
Vonn’s right knee bent awkward as she landed a jump just before she somersaulted down the mountain. Her ski technician, Heinz Hammerle, said he believed Vonn sustained an injury to her right knee. At a meeting of team and race officials Tuesday evening, Peter Schroksnadel, the president of the Austrian ski federation, said that Vonn had injured her anterior cruciate ligament and a lateral knee ligament. Her sister, Laura Kildow, told NBC Sports that Vonn was going to need surgery.
Recovery times for reconstructive knee surgeries vary greatly, but numerous ski racers with multiple ligament tears have returned to the slopes in less than a year — with unpredictable results.
Tuesday’s race, the first of the world championships, was delayed nearly four hours because of fog. There were more than 10 separate delays as officials struggled to get the race in with daylight fading. Vonn led through the first timed stage of the race, but by the second stage she was trailing the eventual winner Tina Maze of Slovenia by .12 of a second.
In the middle of the course, as Vonn made a right-footed turn and arced to her left, she navigated a jump at the same time. Vonn soared above the snow a little off balance with her hands behind her torso rather than in front of her chest, which normally ensures a more stable landing.
Returning to the snow, her right leg splayed briefly to the right and her knee hyperextended inward and toward the left. She pitched forward at the same time as she flipped. With her right ski cartwheeling down the slope after her, Vonn came to a stop a few hundred feet down the slope without contacting the protective fencing. She was attended to by medical personnel for 12 minutes on the side of the trail and airlifted off the mountain to a hospital.
Vonn has missed several weeks of World Cup racing this winter after an intestinal illness hospitalized her in November. After some subpar performances, she took an extended absence from the circuit in mid-December. But Vonn returned about a month later, winning a downhill race Jan. 19 and a giant slalom race the following week.
“I’m really sorry for Lindsey, who took a too direct line,” said Maze, who watched Vonn’s fall. “I regret her dreadful crash.”
Lara Gut of Switzerland finished second, 0.38 seconds behind Maze. Julia Mancuso of the United States was third, 0.52 back. Mancuso called it “by far the most difficult race in my career.”
Other top contenders, like Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany and Anna Fenninger of Austria, also failed to complete the course.
Vonn sustained a concussion that sidelined her during the world championships two years ago. She also had a spectacular, harrowing crash days before the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. With a severely bruised back, she competed days later but failed to win an Olympic medal. Vonn injured her thumb in a crash in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics when she also won a bronze medal in the combined. Those Olympics began with the prospect of Vonn not competing at all because of a shin injury she revealed just days before the start of the Olympics.
Lindsey Vonn Hospitalized After Crash in Super-G
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Lindsey Vonn Hospitalized After Crash in Super-G
