Vonn’s Olympic downhill dream lasted 12.5 seconds
Lindsey Vonn crash update with alpine skiing analyst Brian Stemmle
American skiing star Lindsey Vonn was airlifted following a crash 13 seconds into her downhill run. We’re joined by alpine skiing analyst Brian Stemmle to take a look at what happened at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.
Ski racing is a race against the clock. Time is everything.
The women’s Olympic downhill was clinched by 0.04 seconds. If you’re behind by one second, that’s a lot in a ski race.
Racers make little adjustments throughout their runs to make themselves — as aerodynamic as possible.
Today, it only took 12.5 seconds for Vonn to lose control. She fell in the top section of the Olimpia delle Tofane, Cortina d’Ampezzo’s downhill course.
“That’s where your speed for the rest of the course gets determined,” Kristian Ghedina, a former Italian racer who grew up in Cortina, told Reuters. “If you don’t take the right trajectory, it makes a huge difference because you end up going uphill.”
The top features curves that are unforgiving — including an uphill traverse with a key right turn. That’s where Vonn went down.
“The goal is to be as close to that gate as possible,” said Norwegian skier Kajsa Vickhoff Lie. “But she was too close to it, so she got hooked into it.”
Then things went really wrong.
Vonn got bucked off the final bump of the uphill section. Lie noted that particular bump was “more of a kicker” in this year’s downhill, which is why Vonn suddenly popped into the air.
If you’ve watched the video, you know the rest.
– With files from Reuters
