The Japan Times - Vonn says 'confident' can compete at Olympics despite ruptured ACL

Vonn's Olympic comeback, at the age of 41 and with a titanium implant in her right knee, is one of the storylines of the Milan-Cortina Games.

But she was nearly forced to drop out of the Games after losing her balance and crashing into the netting in the World Cup downhill in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Friday and damaging her other knee.

"Last Friday in Crans Montana in the last World Cup I completely ruptured my ACL," Vonn told reporters in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where the Olympic women's alpine skiing events will be held.

"Today I went skiing and considering how my knee feels, I feel stable, I feel strong. My knee is not swollen and and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete (in the downhill race) on Sunday.

"This is not obviously what I had hoped for... I know what my chances were before the crash and and I know my chances aren't the same as it stands today.

"But I know there's still a chance, and as long as there's a chance I will try."

The women's alpine skiing programme gets underway on Sunday with the downhill, the discipline in which Vonn won her sole Olympic gold in 2010.

- Still going for medals -

Vonn's phenomenal form this season, against some skiers who are nearly half her age like Germany's rising star Emma Aicher, had put her in a great position to add to her three Olympic medals.

She insisted that she was still gunning for another medal "to close out my career".

"I know what my knee has felt like with previous injuries in the gym and what it's felt like during all the physical tests. and I can say that I feel a lot better right now than I have in the past," she said.

"I feel a lot better right now than I did in 2019 for the World championships and I still got a medal there with no ACL and three tibial plateau fractures."

Vonn has finished on the podium in every World Cup downhill race, including two victories in St. Moritz and Zauchensee, and has claimed two more top-three finishes in the super-G.

As well as the Olympic downhill, Vonn said she is aiming also to compete as previously planned in the team combined event on February 10 and the super-G two days later.

Her successes have been all the more remarkable because she only returned to alpine skiing in November 2024, five years after announcing the end of a stellar career which had taken her body to its very limit.

She underwent surgery earlier in 2024 to partially replace her right knee following persistent pain.

But it could end up being her other knee which denies Vonn the chance of breaking her own record for the oldest Olympic medal winner in women's alpine skiing.

Vonn established that record by taking bronze in the downhill at the PyeongChang Winter Games eight years ago.

S.Ogawa--JT