MILAN — U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn said Monday that she'll need multiple operations for the leg she broke in her devastating crash at the Winter Olympics, which she said had "nothing to do" with her deciding to ski with a torn ACL.
"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," she said on Instagram in her first statement since Sunday's crash. "My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever."
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"While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets."
Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee less than two weeks ago at the Alpine Ski World Cup but vowed to compete despite the risk of re-injury and chances of medaling. She skied with a brace Sunday but tumbled and crashed before she reached the first marker of the course.
She was airlifted to a clinic in Cortina and later Ca’ Foncello Hospital in Treviso, where she underwent orthopedic surgery to stabilize a fracture in her left leg.
The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team said in a statement that Vonn was in “stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians."
On Monday, Vonn's father said he would like his daughter to stop competing after this latest injury.
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Alan Kildow said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”
Kildow, who has been with Vonn in the hospital since she was transported after the crash, said his daughter is "a very strong individual."
“She knows physical pain and she understands the circumstances that she finds herself in," he told the AP. "And she’s able to handle it. Better than I expected. She’s a very, very strong person. And so I think she’s handling it real well.”
Vonn, 41, was aiming to become the oldest Alpine skier, man or woman, to win an Olympic medal. She is one of the most accomplished downhill skiers in history, having claimed a gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, as well as two bronze medals — one in Super-G in Vancouver and one in downhill in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018.
She has 84 World Cup victories, second ever behind only U.S. teammate Mikaela Shiffrin’s 108 wins.
