By ANDREW DAMPF, Associated Press Sports Writer
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn needed to use a crutch to get around over the weekend. Now she’s performing box jumps, working out in a pool while wearing a weighted vest and skiing at high speed.
No wonder the 41-year-old American is so optimistic that she can compete in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics downhill on Sunday despite a ruptured ACL in her left knee.
“I’m pretty confident that she can still pull off this dream,” Chris Knight, Vonn’s head coach, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I’ve got no doubts in my mind that this is going to be OK.”
Vonn’s team of two physical therapists — Lindsay Winninger and Andi Mitterfellner — and fitness trainer Peter Meliessnig have been working overtime with her.
“She’s been doing box jumps, she’s trying everything out, loads and stresses and things like that to just see where she’s at and see how she feels and she’s pulled up great from everything,” Knight said. “No swelling, no pain.”
Vonn said on Tuesday that surgery “hasn’t been discussed.”
“It’s not really on my radar screen right now. The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about,” she said. “Every day my knee’s gotten better. And every day we’re discussing with a full medical team, doctors, physios, everyone, to make sure we’re doing everything to make sure I am making smart and safe decisions.”
‘Easy decision to keep moving forward’
Vonn had a partial titanium replacement inserted into her right knee in 2024 and returned to ski racing last season after nearly six years of retirement.
Now she also has bone bruising and meniscal damage in her left knee, though her doctors are not sure if the meniscal issue is a result of her latest injury or from her long series of mishaps earlier in her career.
“She’s not 20 years old, she’s 40 years old. And we’re not looking at anything past this year anyway,” Knight said. “Obviously there’s some risks to just to be able to even ski at the level she wants to ski at. And nobody knows 100% what’s going to happen. But all the right markers and factors are there for us. … It’s a pretty easy decision to keep moving forward.”
Vonn was injured when she lost control landing a jump in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday, and ended up crashing into the safety nets.
“She did have a crutch up until yesterday,” Knight said. “Just to help with a little bit of the load-bearing, but now that’s gone, too.”
Hoping for a weather-related cancellation
After using a crutch on Monday, Vonn tried some free skiing on Tuesday.
“She did some high-speed skiing,” Knight said, “and had no issues.”
Still, Vonn and her team could use some more time for recovery and Knight said she wouldn’t mind if there’s a weather-related cancellation of Thursday’s opening downhill training session. Heavy snow was falling Wedneday, raising the prospect of a cancellation.
“But we also need to get out of the start gate on one training run in case something happens further along the line and they have to cancel something else,” Knight said.
Two more training sessions are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and Vonn needs to start at least one session to take part in Sunday’s race. She might only do just one.
“We have to see what the conditions are like,” Knight said. “There’s lots of options.”
Vonn wants to race for her late mom and childhood coach
Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina and has been racing here for nearly a quarter century, since before some of her current competitors were born. She’s also come back successfully from injuries of this magnitude before.
“We’re on familiar territory,” Knight said. “That’s always been the most important part of it, going into this whole comeback 18-month project, is that we knew that we would get to a spot where she’s very, very familiar with. … Nothing is unknown apart from what’s just happened.”
There’s also this: Vonn wants to race in honor of her late mother, Lindy, who died in 2022 of ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and her childhood coach, Erich Sailer, who died in August aged 99.
She stopped to visit Sailer’s grave in Austria on her way to Cortina.
“It’s just so many reasons for her to not let go that they’re powering her along and keeping the adrenaline high,” Knight said. “You don’t want to slow down in these situations.”
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