Cortina d'Ampezzo [Italy], February 8: US ski star Lindsey Vonn appears ready for Sunday's Olympic downhill ski race despite a cruciate knee ligament tear after placing third in the final training run.
Vonn, 41, clenched her fist after crossing the finish line during the session.
Skiing with a special brace, she trailed leading team-mate Breezy Johnson by .37 of a second, with German Kira Weidle-Winkelmann second on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste.
The 2010 downhill gold medallist came out of retirement last season with the aim to medal at the Milan/Cortina Games, despite a partially artificial right knee.
"I will stand in the starting gate tomorrow and know I am strong. Know that I believe in myself. Know that the odds are stacked against me with my age, no ACL, and a titanium knee - but know that I still believe," she wrote on Instagram before her final Olympic downhill.
"And usually, when the odds are stacked against me the most, I pull the best of what's inside me out." Injury drama She won two downhills this season and finished on the podium in the three others before crashing in the last World Cup downhill before the Games at the Swiss venue of Crans-Montana.
Vonn revealed on Wednesday that she had ruptured the cruciate ligament and sustained other damage in her left knee but that she would try to compete.
A first training on Friday went well for her and Saturday's session too, which will give her confidence for the race on the course where she claimed a first World Cup podium in 2004 and then went on to win six downhills and six super-g races apiece.
Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin said that Vonn has already achieved "so many incredible things" and that she's keeping her fingers crossed for her US team-mate.
"I'm so excited to see it. I believe 100% that anything is possible," she said.
World Cup record winner Shiffrin is not competing in the downhill, but is favourite in the slalom. She will also compete in the giant slalom and in the team combined, in which she might ski with Vonn.
"Fortunately, I have no influence on this decision," she said, adding that it's a coach's decision and that it would be "an honour" to ski alongside any of her team-mates.
Coach assessment Vonn's coach, Aksel Lund Svindal, is backing her for Sunday.
"Yesterday was about, 'Please let this be OK'. Tomorrow is like, 'Let's go and be fast'," he said.
"She was very calm when she came down. She talked about skiing and was calm and didn't talk about the knee at all. And then I didn't want to ask either, because I figured that's a good sign.
"How I've learned to know her is when she's calm it means she feels like she has it under control."
Asked whether she was physically ready to win, he added: "Good enough to win this race, hopefully. But her mental strength, I think that's why she has won as much as she has."
Source: Qatar Tribune
