Nothing in life is guaranteed: Lindsey Vonn returns home for more surgeries

Dubai: She may not admit it yet, but it looks like American alpine skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn’s long and illustrious career is finally over.

The 41-year-old flew back to her home country on Sunday after her terrifying head-over-heels crash in the Olympic downhill, the US Ski Team's chief told AP.

Vonn has already had multiple surgeries in Italy to repair a complex tibia fracture in her left leg and more surgeries are on the way once she is back.

"We're working through all of that at the moment," Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of the US Ski and Snowboard Association, said. "We've got a great team around helping her and she'll go back to the US for further surgeries."

Goldschmidt, who was in attendance to witness the horror crash, added: "The impact, the silence, everyone was just in shock. And you could tell it was a really nasty injury."

Vonn herself has no regrets.

"When I think back on my crash, I didn't stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences," Vonn said in an Instagram post late Saturday. "I knew what I was doing. I chose to take a risk. Every skier in that starting gate took the same risk. Because even if you are the strongest person in the world, the mountain always holds the cards.

"But just because I was ready, that didn't guarantee me anything. Nothing in life is guaranteed. That's the gamble of chasing your dreams, you might fall but if you don't try you'll never know," Vonn added.

Goldschmidt visited Vonn at the hospital twice and said, "She's not in pain. She's in a stable condition.

"She took an aggressive line and was all in and it was inches off what could have ended up a very different way," Goldschmidt said. "But what she's done for our sports and the sport in general, her being a role model, has gone to a whole new level. You learn often more about people during these tough moments than when they're winning."