Former U.S. Olympians Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers were slightly injured Sunday in a collision involving the van they were riding in as part of Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade, Biden's office said.
NBC News reported that the collision occurred about 2:15 p.m. south of downtown Vancouver.
A statement from Jay Carney, Biden's communications director, said that the van was carrying members of the official U.S. Olympic delegation to an event, and that Fleming and Flowers sustained minor injuries and were taken to a hospital as a precaution. They were evaluated and released, the statement said.
The two former Olympians later attended a figure skating competition, sitting in the row in front of Biden.
Olympic authorities said the accident happened shortly before noon. Fleming said she and Flowers were riding in a van with hockey Olympian Mike Eruzione and White House and Secret Service personnel when the accident occurred. They were in the motorcade's next-to-last vehicle, which was rear-ended and hit the vehicle in front of it.
Scott Gordon, spokesman for the Integrated Security Unit, said the accident was possibly caused by poor road conditions and perhaps an oil slick.
Fleming won the women's ice skating Olympic title in 1968 in Grenoble, France. She also won five U.S. titles and three world championships.
Flowers was the first black person to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, winning the two-woman bobsledding event in 2002 as the brakewoman with driver Jill Bakken.
In November, an armored SUV and a limousine used to transport Biden struck and killed a man at an intersection in Washington, D.C. The Secret Service vehicles had been flown back from an event in Washington state, and Biden was not present.
