n a shocking news development Wednesday, VANOC announced the Olympics will proceed even if Lindsey Vonn can’t ski, which is good because the cheese on her leg may not work.
- Source: Yahoo
Vonn, the world’s best-known snow star not named Shaun White, revealed she has a serious shin injury that could derail what some media wistfully project will be a five-medal games for the blonde swimsuit model from Vail, Colo.
The current World Cup women’s leader in downhill, super-G and over-all standings told a packed press conference at Canada Place that it’s possible she won’t compete in Whistler after badly injuring her right shin during a fall in slalom training last Tuesday in Lienz, Austria. But Vonn, 25, refuses to have a X-ray of her leg for fear a bone could be fractured. She is, however, undergoing laser, massage and cheese treatments.
“It takes the swelling out,” she said of the fromage. “I don’t know in English; in German it’s Topfen.”
Funny, we figured American cheese or, given her speed, Cheez Whiz.
Anyway, she explained the cheese is from neither the cow nor goat she won at races in Europe – damn this recession – and at least we’ll know what that smell is coming from the start house for Sunday’s downhill-slalom combined event. For a change, it may not be fear among her opponents. If she races.
Her doctor thinks she will ski.
Orthopedic specialist Bill Sterret, who has worked with Vonn since she was 13, said the injury is muscular.
“I think she’s well on her way to looking good for these Olympics,” Dr. Sterret said Wednesday in a conference call. “She’s a tough girl. I don’t think you can ever discount Lindsey and how tough she is and how much she wants this.”
That toughness – mental and physical – combined with supreme ability has made Vonn seem almost invincible in speed events the last three years. She won the last two World Cup over-all and downhill titles.
Starting in Lake Louise in December, she won the first five downhills of this season and secured the super-G title with two post-Olympic events to go.
With 31 World Cup wins, Vonn is probably the best American skier ever and one of the best, period, although she needs an Olympic medal or two to really join that conversation. Vonn is a global star who is beginning to transcend her sport; witness her appearance in bikini in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. Even X-Games megastar White hasn’t done that, although he’d doubtless be up to the challenge if asked.
The All-American girl is expected to be the face of these Canadian Olympics. It seems almost inconceivable that one of the best female athletes on the planet will be allowed by her Vonntourage – her medical, marketing, Team USA people – to go into the Olympics without definitive proof her tibia and fibula are sound.
“I don’t know that it’s not broken,” Vonn admitted of her shin. “My physio that was there [in Austria] wanted me to get a X-ray and I refused to get one. I pretty much stuck my fingers in my ear and just pretended like I didn’t hear what was going on. I didn’t want to hear that my shin was fractured because, at the time, that’s what it looked like.”
Surely, her medical team would rather cut the cheese for the X-ray.
“Yeah, they would,” Vonn said. “But I said no, and so they respect that and we’ll just do the best with what we have. My doctor felt the bone and he said it looks pretty stable. I think I’ll be alright.”
Vonn said she hyperextended her shin when she “went over” her skis in an awkward training fall. Rather than return home to Colorado as planned, she remained in Austria for three days of intensive therapy.
There was no hint of her injury when she arrived at YVR on Tuesday, greeted like a rock star by media and fans.
But when she put on her ski boot in her hotel room, Vonn said there was “excruciating pain.” The collar of the boot puts pressure on the most sensitive part of her shin, she explained.
“It’s very emotional, very scary and not the positive way you want to be starting the Olympics,” she said. “I have had a lot of injuries. I’ve always felt I’ve been able to push through them pretty well. It’s going to be very, very challenging, and very difficult. It’s going to be hard.
“It’s hard to stay positive. It’s hard to focus on just being prepared for these Olympics when you have such a big injury like this. It’s definitely changed my whole perspective coming into these games. A week ago, I won the last World Cup race. . . I was feeling great, I was healthy, I had no problems and now I’m sitting here today questioning whether I’ll be even able to ski.”
She said she’ll know more today when training opens for Sunday’s super combined. The women’s downhill is Wednesday, followed by the super-G on Friday.
She has five events on her schedule, but even before her injury was never going to go 5-for-5. Only speed skaters and swimmers are capable of that. Skiing has too many variables, so much speed and so little margin for error. The greatest thing she has in common with Michael Phelps are immense expectations and a tiny swimsuit.
