Lindsey Vonn’s fall: a challenge taken too far? | OneFootball

Accustomed to making the impossible possible, did Lindsey Vonn try to go too far? The American alpine skiing star fractured her left leg during a descent at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday, after already arriving in Italy with a severe knee injury.

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What happened?

Vonn's latest challenge, who at 41 dreamed of enhancing her successful career with a second Olympic title, ended with a fall in the snow in 13 seconds.

The Olimpia delle Tofane track, one of her favorites where she won 12 times in the World Cup, was not a talisman this time: the 'Queen of Speed' lost her balance on the second turn of the descent after touching one of the course flags.

She fell violently, and her skis did not come off despite the strong impact.

After a long intervention by the medical services on the track, the Olympic downhill champion at the Vancouver 2010 Games was airlifted to the Cortina hospital and from there to another hospital in Treviso, where she underwent an “orthopedic surgery to consolidate the fracture of the left leg,” explained the Ca’Foncello Hospital.

The Italian press reported that Vonn underwent a second surgery on the injured leg on Sunday.

For many, Vonn, considered one of the best skiers in history, simply made a mistake in choosing her path.

“There is a small technical error,” said Frenchman Luc Alphand, the 1997 World Cup winner and currently a commentator, to AFP.

“At the moment she starts to climb, she tilts her shoulders a bit (…) and since there's a slope, she continues trying to ski and goes straight towards the flag. That's where she hits her arm on the flag, that's what makes her turn,” analyzes Alphand.

“As there isn't enough speed, the skis don't come off completely (…) The leverage effect of the skis is enormous, they are 2.15 meters long and heavy. That causes damage,” explains the Frenchman.

Does the knee injury explain the fall?

Vonn had suffered another severe fall nine days earlier in Crans Montana (Switzerland), where she tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her left knee, but she always seemed convinced she could participate in the Olympics.

Dr. Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, an orthopedic surgeon consulted by numerous football players and other athletes who suffered this injury, sees, “a priori,” no connection between the injured knee and the cause of the fall.

He also dismisses the idea of compensation to relieve the knee injury, in a position that would have led to a possible trajectory error.

“Then, one can legitimately ask if the brace [that Vonn used to stabilize the left knee] aggravated the fracture or prevented the worsening of the knee's ligament injuries,” opines Sonnery-Cottet.

Despite not having access to the athlete's medical history, he dismisses the idea that Vonn, who suffered several knee injuries throughout her career and was used to dealing with such problems, was poorly advised by her doctors.

“It's always the athlete who decides, fully aware of the risks of such a decision. She tried everything, but it proves that miracles and superheroes don't exist,” says Sonnery-Cottet.

Should skiers be prohibited from taking such big risks?

With Vonn's case, some experts suggest that an injured skier should receive authorization from an independent doctor before being allowed to compete.

An idea that the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS), Johan Eliasch, does not consider: “It's tragic, but it's part of competitive skiing (…) People who say she shouldn't have competed today don't know Lindsey,” said the official on Sunday.

Returning even after a severe injury to the left leg (double fracture of the tibia and fibula), Italian Federica Brignone sums up the general sentiment of the skiing world: “No one can tell you what you should do, it's a decision that only one person should make: the athlete.”

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*With content from AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.