Lindsey Vonn was already the star of these Olympics. Now she’s the hero, too

You know the old line about sports, and about life — it’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you get back up. Lindsey Vonn has fallen more times than most — that tends to happen when your career involves hurtling headlong down ski slopes at 85 miles an hour — and she’s gotten up more times than almost anyone ever has, too. 

Vonn, on the eve of her fifth Olympics, announced Tuesday that she had ruptured her ACL in a crash one week before the Milano Cortina Opening Ceremony. With one agonizing, heartbreaking wreck on a Swiss ski slope, all of Vonn’s work to get back to this point — a knee replacement, lengthy rehab, retirement, then un-retirement followed by race after race to qualify for these Olympic Games — seemed to evaporate. 

Just a few minutes before 4 p.m. Milan time Tuesday, Vonn sat down before a podium and began by revealing the extent of the extensive damage to her left knee. No one would have blamed her had she declared her magical Olympic run over. 

But this is Lindsey Vonn we’re talking about, one of the toughest, most determined, most relentless athletes America has ever produced. Vonn metaphorically tightened her straps and clicked back into her skis. 

"This is not, obviously, what I had hoped for," Vonn said. “I know there's still a chance, and as long as there's a chance, I will try."

Damn right. That is the true Olympic spirit.

For all the Olympics’ many sins — corruption, petty nationalism, doping controversies, political gamesmanship, endless grifting — there’s a deeper truth that surges above them all. The Olympics showcase the very best athletes in the world, and the finest elements of the human spirit, as well. 

REUTERS / Reuters

Consider, for a second, what Vonn endured these last eight years since winning a bronze in the Pyeongchang Games. She had to come to terms with the end of her career, which many athletes describe in terms of grief and mourning. She suffered pain even on routine hikes. She underwent partial knee replacement surgery. She found hope in her newly healthy knee. She began the long climb back upward to the pinnacle of her sport, and — against all odds, in defiance of the calendar — she made it, winning races and earning her way back onto the Olympic team. She saw all her dreams laid before her … and suddenly, they all crashed down around her. 

Even now, with waning hopes of winning, with her chances of even finishing a run at speed in doubt, she’s determined to challenge one more mountain, to end her Olympic dreams on her terms. That’s as impressive and inspiring as it gets. 

“Maybe I can't do this with no ACL, but I still believe in myself, and that makes me smile. That makes me confident. That makes me happy,” Vonn said. “No matter what, I'm going to try my best, so what is there to be sad about? I'm still able to be here. I'm still skiing. I'm still living the dream at 41. And that makes me happy that I have that chance.”

Vonn knows that every Olympian faces so many opponents. There are the other competitors, of course, but then there are other nations. There’s history looming out there, an Olympic legacy waiting to be written. There’s the battle with one’s own self, the doubts and the fears that hound every Olympian. And then, of course, there’s the clock, the inexorable march of time that ends Olympic careers earlier than any Olympian would want. 

Vonn has triumphed over all of these. She has nothing left to prove, no reason to go back up that hill other than the fact that she simply couldn’t imagine doing anything else. That’s how you go from being a darling of NBC’s Winter Olympic promos to a legitimate national hero, by embodying the best of what we all strive to be. 

“This whole comeback has really just been about always believing in yourself. It doesn't matter how old or how young you are. If you believe and you work hard, anything is possible,” Vonn said. “A lot of times, people's minds are closed. They don't see what's possible because they don't look. I've always had my head up and my eyes open and my heart open for any opportunity that lies in front of me. And I hope that everyone realizes that they can do it too.”

Vonn will continue to test her knee before the downhill competition begins on Sunday. Regardless of how she feels leading up to then, regardless of what happens on the slopes of Cortina d’Ampezzo, she plans on being in that starting gate. She’ll push off. She’ll fire down the mountain for one more Olympic run. 

She’ll have the eyes of the world on her, and the hearts of the world behind her. Who could ask for anything more?