‘No regrets’ – Vonn sustains ‘complex tibia fracture’

American skier Lindsey Vonn says she has “no regrets” after a crash within the ladies’s downhill competitors on the Winter Olympics resulted in a “advanced tibia fracture” which would require a number of surgical procedures.

The 41-year-old was already racing with ruptured ligaments in her left knee when she struck a gate 13 seconds into Sunday’s run in Cortina.

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Thrown off steadiness, Vonn was left screaming in ache after falling and was handled on the slope for a prolonged interval earlier than being airlifted to hospital in Treviso.

The 2010 Olympic downhill champion, competing at a fifth and last Video games, later had surgical procedure on a fractured left leg.

“Yesterday my Olympic dream didn’t end the best way I dreamt it could,” she mentioned in a put up on Instagram on Monday.

“It wasn’t a narrative ebook ending or a fairytale, it was simply life. I dared to dream and had labored so exhausting to attain it.

“Whereas yesterday didn’t finish the best way I had hoped, and regardless of the extreme bodily ache it brought on, I’ve no regrets.

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“Standing within the beginning gate yesterday was an unbelievable feeling that I’ll always remember. Understanding I stood there having an opportunity to win was a victory in and of itself.”

The 2010 Olympic downhill champion tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) whereas competing simply 9 days earlier than the Video games started.

The 2-time world champion says the torn ACL and her earlier accidents, together with a partial proper knee alternative, “had nothing to do with my crash by any means”.

Vonn’s determination to race has led to widespread reward for her bravery but additionally criticism concerning the risks and potential danger of everlasting harm.

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“It all the time was and all the time will likely be an extremely harmful sport. And just like ski racing, we take dangers in life,” she mentioned.

“We dream. We love. We leap. And generally we fall. Typically our hearts are damaged. Typically we do not obtain the goals we all know we may have. However that can be the great thing about life; we will attempt.

“I hope for those who take away something from my journey it is that you simply all have the braveness to dare tremendously. Life is simply too brief to not take possibilities on your self. As a result of the one failure in life will not be making an attempt.

“I attempted. I dreamt. I jumped.”

Vonn’s American team-mate Keely Cashman mentioned individuals who had criticised her for competing “have no idea what is going on on”.

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“Folks that do not know ski racing do not actually perceive what occurred yesterday,” downhill skier Cashman mentioned on Monday.

“She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her round. She was going most likely 70mph, and in order that twists your physique round.”

Italy’s two-time world champion Federica Brignone additionally defended Vonn, saying: “If it is your physique, then you definitely determine what to do, whether or not to race or not. It is less than others. Solely you.”