Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
AP
—
Lindsey Vonn wanted to make use of a crutch to get round over the weekend. Now she’s performing field jumps, understanding in a pool whereas carrying a weighted vest and snowboarding at excessive velocity.
No surprise the 41-year-old American is so optimistic that she will compete in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics downhill on Sunday regardless of 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, instructed The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I’ve got no doubts in my mind that this is going to be OK.”
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Vonn’s staff of two bodily therapists – Lindsay Winninger and Andi Mitterfellner – and health coach Peter Meliessnig have been working extra time 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 stated. “No swelling, no pain.”
Vonn stated on Tuesday that surgical procedure “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 stated. “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.”
Vonn had a partial titanium substitute inserted into her proper knee in 2024 and returned to ski racing final season after practically six years of retirement.
Now she additionally has bone bruising and meniscal injury in her left knee, although her docs will not be certain if the meniscal concern is a results of her newest damage or from her lengthy collection of mishaps earlier in her profession.
“She’s not 20 years old, she’s 40 years old. And we’re not looking at anything past this year anyway,” Knight stated. “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 misplaced management touchdown a bounce in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday, and ended up crashing into the security nets.
“She did have a crutch up until yesterday,” Knight stated. “Just to help with a little bit of the load-bearing, but now that’s gone, too.”
After utilizing a crutch on Monday, Vonn tried some free snowboarding on Tuesday.
“She did some high-speed skiing,” Knight stated, “and had no issues.”
Still, Vonn and her staff may use some extra time for restoration. Knight stated she wouldn’t thoughts if there’s a weather-related cancellation and so they bought their want Wednesday when organizers introduced that Thursday’s opening downhill coaching session wouldn’t be held because of the heavy ongoing snowfall on the course.
“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 stated.
Two extra coaching classes are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and Vonn wants to start out no less than one session to participate in Sunday’s race. She may solely do only one.
“We have to see what the conditions are like,” Knight stated. “There’s lots of options.”
Vonn needs to race for her late mother and childhood coach
Vonn holds the report of 12 World Cup wins in Cortina and has been racing right here for practically 1 / 4 century, since earlier than a few of her present rivals had been born. She’s additionally come again efficiently from accidents of this magnitude earlier than.
“We’re on familiar territory,” Knight stated. “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 additionally this: Vonn needs to race in honor of her late mom, Lindy, who died in 2022 of ALS, in any other case often called Lou Gehrig’s illness, and her childhood coach, Erich Sailer, who died in August aged 99.
She stopped to go to Sailer’s grave in Austria on her technique 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 stated. “You don’t want to slow down in these situations.”