Winter Olympics: Will Lindsey Vonn do what Tiger Woods did with a torn ACL?

Dubai: Truth is oftentimes stranger than fiction.

Almost 18 years after Tiger Woods famously won the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines while playing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament or ACL, his former girlfriend and American speed queen Lindsey Vonn will attempt to win a medal at the Winter Olympics with a ruptured ACL.

Having retired once in 2019 saying she was “broken beyond repair” after a series of major injuries, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion had been free of pain since a partial right-knee replacement in April, 2024.

Now 41, the American has, however, been thrown another challenge in an injury-blighted career after a heavy crash in a World Cup downhill race in Crans Montana, Switzerland, last Friday.

Vonn, nevertheless, insisted at a press conference on Tuesday that she would defy that injury in a bid to take to the piste in Cortina d’Ampezzo for Sunday’s Olympic downhill.

“My knee is not swollen, and with the help of a knee brace, I am confident that I can compete on Sunday,” Vonn said. “And as long as there’s a chance, I will try ... I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate,” she said.

Her desire to risk it all has drawn praise from her contemporaries, including male racers competing at the Olympics.

“She’s one of the greatest of all time,” Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt told reporters after the first downhill training session for the men in Bormio.

“She’s recovered from so many injuries and (had so many) comebacks.

“I hope she can race on Sunday and win a medal,” said the reigning Olympic giant slalom champion and runaway World Cup leader who is a firm favourite to add to his medal haul in Italy.

Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr acknowledged that knee injuries were part and parcel of ski racing, the centrifugal nature of which puts incredible pressure on the legs.

“There are many athletes on the start in the downhill, also from my team, without an ACL,” said the Austrian who won both the downhill and super-G gold at the 2021 world championships held in Cortina.

“One week after that crash, it’s amazing. She’s inspiring every one of us, for sure.

“I’m a big fan of her, how she puts everything into the sport and I wish her all the best,” he said of Vonn, who has a World Cup record of 12 victories in Cortina.

Italian veteran Dominik Paris said it had not been nice to see the crash and hear about the injury.

“Hopefully she can do this dream,” said Paris. “Hopefully she’s safe enough with the knee not to have another injury.

“We’ll see, hopefully it’s not a stupid thing.”

American Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who topped times for the first training run, said the US men’s team were “definitely taking inspiration from her”.

“She’s an incredible athlete, an incredible person and her mental fortitude and her drive just show so much passion for the sport and passion in herself,” he said.

“Obviously, we would have wanted her fully healthy going into these Games.”

But Cochran-Siegle echoed the thoughts of many other racers by adding: “I still think she’s a threat, with her history in Cortina and her dominance as a speed athlete over her career.

“Never count her out! It should be fun to watch.”

Vonn has finished on the podium in every World Cup downhill race this season, including two victories in St. Moritz and Zauchensee, and has claimed two more top-three finishes in the super-G.

But it will be a monumental ask for her to repeat that feat with such a damaged knee.

The women’s programme gets under way Thursday with three downhill training runs.

All eyes will be on Vonn, who has to complete at least one training run to be able to compete in Sunday’s downhill.