Lindsey Vonn is no stranger to the pain of a crash. Or the uncertainty of an injury. But things weren’t always like this. 2006 was the year that changed it all, because before that, Vonn didn’t know what it meant to be ‘out of control.’ She had never felt the jarring fear of being tossed meters high on the snowy slopes or that of landing disbalanced on ice. But that year, she experienced it up close, and the aftermath was so grave, she thought her career was done for. Imagine 3 Olympic medals and 8 world medals; a lot of that could not have been in that trophy cabinet….
Yes, most ski fans would know that Vonn had her first major crash in 2006. It was her second Olympics in Torino , which didn’t begin with a podium moment but with a training-run crash so bad that she had to be airlifted off the mountain. And while the headlines told us she’d crashed, we are now looking back into how deeply it rattled her. So it’s time we hear it from Vonn herself. How deeply traumatized she was. How deeply scarred and affected it left her.
Back in 2022, Lindsey Vonn published her book Rise, where she gave us an excerpt of what her first-ever crash and injury looked like: “I was lying in the snow in Turin, Italy, trying to figure out which future awaited me. My time at the 2006 Olympics had barely begun, but now it was almost certainly over.” She was leading halfway down the course when she ran into a series of man-made rolls.
“There were three in a row, and when I went over one of them, my ski got lighter. As I landed, my uphill ski hooked up and went in the wrong direction. ” Next? “The next thing I knew, I was being forced into the splits. Both my knees touched the ground—going eighty miles per hour—and the force of it flipped me over,” Vonn wrote. She then hurtled through the air for a couple of seconds before landing flat on her back.
Her reaction? “Immediately, I thought my back and hips were broken. The pain was excruciating.” And then, a morphine shot, a stretcher, and a helicopter later, Vonn found herself in a hospital bed, sobbing while waiting on scan results, “Skiing had always been a part of her life until that moment when she realized how easy it was to lose it all.”
And that was exactly what happened with Lindsey Vonn. But do you know that’s not where it all ended for her? Amazingly, just 48 hours after that horrific crash, Lindsey got out of that hospital bed, limped back to the slopes, and finished eighth in the women’s downhill. Yes, she didn’t win a medal, but that comeback earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, and rightfully so. After all, she had made up her mind that the 2006 Olympics meant a lot to her. Why? You’re about to know that.
The 2006 Olympics mattered a lot to Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn had made up her mind. When she arrived at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, she had a dream envisioned in her mind, and she was ready to make it a reality. Four years earlier, Vonn had made the Olympic team, although only as a provisional member, while she was still fighting to establish her spot. This time, things had changed.
Now, her place on the team was unquestionable, and so this time, she wanted a medal. Yes, in 2002, Vonn competed in her first Olympic Games alongside her friend, role model, and Hall of Famer, Picabo Street. And while she didn’t podium then, she built a reputation as one of the best in the world in the years that followed. Unfortunately, in 2006, she still faced ill fate due to this crash and could not medal again.
But yes, luckily, over the years and several repeated injuries, she did find her footing as a sports legend. What do you think of this? Let us know below!
The post “Pain Was Excruciating”: Lindsey Vonn Recalled Massive Injury That Nearly Ended Skiing Career Long Before Becoming Sport’s Legend appeared first on EssentiallySports.
