U.S. Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn has shared an update following her serious crash and evacuation from the course in Cortina on Sunday.
Vonn posted a heartfelt statement on social media Monday, offering her thoughts on what went wrong as she fell, how she’s felt since and why she doesn’t believe it was a mistake to compete despite having recently torn her ACL.
Her full statement is below:

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Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

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Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.

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. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.

Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.

While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.

And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.

I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.

I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.

I believe in you, just as you believed in me.

“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,” Vonn wrote on the moment she fell. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
Vonn added she suffered “a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”
“And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life,” Vonn wrote. “We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.
“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”

 


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While Vonn didn’t mention anything specifically on any future career plans, her father, Alan Kildow, said she would no longer race if he had any influence over her decision.
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” he 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.”

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Vonn will not be able to return to the Olympic sidelines to cheer on her teammates, but, in her own words, competing in Italy despite all the circumstances was a risk she was willing to take.
“Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.”

U.S. women's alpine ski team's head physician reacts to Lindsey Vonn's crash

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U.S. women’s alpine ski team’s head physician reacts to Lindsey Vonn’s crash

Dr. Jeff Harrison, who has been a physician for the U.S. alpine ski team for 28 years, has known Lindsey Vonn since she was a teenager.