Olympic skiier Lindsey Vonn crashed in her most recent competition, which she announced would be her last before retiring from the sport.
According to ESPN, Vonn struggled a bit during the super-G races and ended up landing in some safety nets after crashing through the snow and sliding facedown.
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She was quickly examined by medical personnel, and headed down the hill after they determined she was OK.
“Everyone was screaming as she crashed jumping through the gates,” Nicole Schmidhofer, an Austrian racer said of Vonn’s accident. “That’s Lindsey. She [goes] 100 percent or nothing. That’s why she has won so many races and why she’s an Olympic champion.”
New this morning: Lindsey Vonn crashes hard during the super-G at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Sweden.
This was the second-to-last race of Vonn’s career, @nmoralesnbc reports. pic.twitter.com/dizlNzgaOy
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 5, 2019
Vonn previously announced that this would be her final outing as a ski competitor, citing her many past accidents as taking a toll on her body and causing her to need to walk away from the sport before she does more damage.
“The past two weeks have been some of the most emotionally challenging days of my life,” Vonn’s statement began. “I am struggling with the reality of what my body is telling me versus what my mind and heart believe I’m capable of. The unfortunate reality is my mind and body are not on the same page.”
“After many sleepless nights, I have finally accepted that I cannot continue ski racing. I will compete at the World Championships in Downhill and Super-G next week in Åre, Sweden and they will be the final races of my career,” she went on to say
“Over the past few years I have had more injuries and surgeries than I care to admit. I have always pushed the limits of ski racing and it has allowed me to have amazing success but also dramatic crashes,” Vonn added.
“I have never wanted the storyline of my career to be about injuries and because of that I decided not to tell anyone that I underwent surgery this past spring. A large portion of cartilage that had delaminated from my bone was removed. My crash in Lake Louise last year was much more painful than I let on, but I continued to race because I wanted to win a medal in the Olympics for my late grandfather,” she also said.
