In a whisk of skis, poles, and soft powder on a mountain slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, the latest comeback of legendary ski racer Lindsey Vonn ended this morning.
The 41-year-old former world and Olympic champion had gotten attention in the last week due to an injury on a training run, leading to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Now, anyone who knows anything about the physical demands on athletes — especially female athletes — would have surmised that, after the training crash of nine days ago, that her Olympic comeback was, essentially, over.
Vonn is made of sterner stuff. She had a pretty good training run two days ago, but with world attention focused on this morning’s competitive run, she suffered a bad fall, one from which she had to be ferried from the course by helicopter.
Many keyboard jockeys are already making comments about how Vonn perhaps shouldn’t have been on the Olympic team after a six-year retirement.
But if you look at the FIS standings, Vonn is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in the downhill. Yep, No. 1.
Need some evidence of this? Look at the blue graph from the FIS website, one which shows her ranked 32nd in downhill in 2019 and back to No. 1 in 2026:
I couldn’t believe it myself, but Vonn is an expert at making fools of disbelievers.
Vonn’s crash this morning, regrettably, has taken some of the sheen off the fact that fellow American Breezy Johnson, who also has a significant results gap because of an injury and a suspension, won the gold today in the women’s individual downhill.
I’m hoping that her win will be remembered with the same clarity as Vonn’s crash.