With her skiing career likely over after a horrific crash at the Olympics on Sunday, Lindsey Vonn still says she has “no regrets” about competing with a torn ACL in her left knee.
The American alpine skiing legend was airlifted to hospital after catching her arm on a gate and being sent crashing during the downhill race at Cortina d’Ampezzo.
She has since revealed the full extent of her injuries and will require “multiple surgeries.”
Vonn shared the update in an Instagram post Monday, revealing she suffered a complex tibia fracture.
“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life,” Vonn wrote. “I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.
“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash.”
The three-time Olympic medallist also wrote that her “ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
Vonn suffered a completely torn ACL in her left knee – among other injuries – during a World Cup race in Switzerland on Jan. 30 and competed at the Games wearing a large brace on her knee.
While she did well in two training runs leading up to the event, Vonn crashed just 13 seconds into the race.
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn continued in her post, which has received more than 1 million likes. “Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.
“And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is also the beauty of life; we can try.”
Is this the end of Vonn’s career?
This was Vonn’s fifth Olympics, including her debut at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. After this latest injury, at least one person believes Vonn should retire – her father.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Alan Kildow said that, if he has any influence over his daughter’s decision, this would be the end of her career.
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Kildow told the outlet. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”