WEST VANCOUVER — After weeks of buildup, Lindsey Vonn will take to the mountain in Whistler today and race. The question now: Will her medal hopes take it on the shin?
Vonn races in the women’s downhill today, her first of five scheduled events here. Her bruised right shin clearly bothered her after Monday’s training run and she said her confidence was not high.
The weather did her another favor yesterday as the final training run was canceled. Her husband, Thomas, says “there’s no question” she will compete in today’s race.
He told the Associated Press that his wife was resting her leg yesterday and the shin was “throbbing.” Vonn had the fastest time of the first part of a split training session, but her shin began to hurt after she went off the final jump of the second part of the session.
“It’s feeling really bad right now,” Vonn said Monday. “I’m a little nervous as to what it’s going to feel like. I have to do therapy and hope for the best. I really don’t know how it’s going to respond after a day like today.”
Vonn injured the shin on Feb. 2 during training in Austria. She stayed off the slopes until Sunday, when she did slalom training. The weather has helped Vonn, repeatedly causing canceled training runs and the postponement of the super-combined from Sunday to tomorrow.
Thomas Vonn said Lindsey still plans on competing in every Alpine race here. Today’s event is Vonn’s best. She has won five of the six World Cup downhills this season.
If she does make it through the downhill, she has a short turnaround for her next race. She’ll be back on the mountain tomorrow for the super-combined and Saturday for the super-G. She would then get a few days of rest before the giant slalom on Feb. 24 and the slalom on Feb. 26.
Vonn came to Vancouver as the cover girl of the American Olympic team. Featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and inside the pages of the magazine’s swimsuit issue, Vonn has the most hype of any U.S. competitor.
She was expected to contend for multiple medals. The shin bruise could end those hopes. If she does overcome the injury to capture Olympic glory, she could be the Kerri Strug of these games.
