Lindsey Vonn Reveals Serious Injury

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Photo by: Courtesy of Head Skis

Maybe there is something to this Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

Lindsey Vonn, America’s best hope for alpine gold, revealed this morning in an interview with NBC Today’s Matt Lauer that she sustained a deep and serious bruise on her shin during slalom training in Austria last week—an injury that she expect will take two weeks to fully heal.

Training runs for the first women’s alpine event, the super combined, are scheduled for Thursday at Whistler, B.C. The race itself is scheduled for Sunday, with the women’s downhill scheduled for next Wednesday, Feb. 17, followed by the super G on Feb 20, GS on Feb. 24 and slalom on Feb. 26.

Vonn called the injury a “deep muscle bruise” and reported that the “muscle is bleeding.” She said that when she tried her boot on and attempted to flex it, “it was excruciatingly painful.”

As of Wednesday morning, U.S. Ski Team officials had made no mention of the injury.

“Anytime I’m in my boot, it’s painful,” Vonn, the two-time World Cup overall winner said. “I’m going to go up there (Thursday), put my skis on and see how it feels. … I have to take it day to day and just keep doing therapy and hope it gets better.”

U.S. race fans can only hope that poor weather will come to the rescue. Delays are common with speed events, which is why they are always scheduled in the early days of the Olympic Games. Current forecasts do indeed look promisingly poor. Thursday: Snow in the morning; periods of rain in the afternoon. Friday: Rain. Saturday: periods of rain mixed with snow. Sunday: 70 percent chance of rain mixed with snow.

Given the timetable Vonn laid out for recovery, there’s reason to hope she’ll be sufficiently well recovered to compete at her usual high level during the technical events, GS and slalom.

Lindsey Vonn Head Skis

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