It was over sooner than expected.
Quickly after leaving the start, Team USA ski star Lindsey Vonn flew off a roll on the women’s Olympic downhill course and failed to stick the landing early Sunday morning on a sunny, clear day in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The crowd was completely silent for the decorated US skier, who had completed a pair of training runs just a week after completely rupturing her ACL in her left knee.
She was willing to risk absolutely everything and the Olympic comeback that has captivated the world has ended.
American Breezy Johnson — the defending world champion and the racer who paced the field in Saturday’s training run — took over the top of the podium with a time of 1:36.10 after being the sixth racer to go down the course.
At the time of writing, Johnson held first place followed by Germany’s Emma Aicher (1:36.14) and Austria’s Cornelia Hütter (1:36.96).
Fellow American and a dark horse for a medal, Jackie Wiles, is waiting to race with bib No. 24.
Vonn previously won gold in the women’s downhill at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. She also holds a bronze from the 2010 Super-G and a bronze in the 2018 downhill in PyeongChang.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
