Vail, CO – After being evaluated following a downhill training crash at Copper Mountain on Tuesday, Lindsey Vonn’s physicians have confirmed that the ski racer has again partially torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, setting back her quest to return to ski racing in time to compete in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia this February.
![A photo from Lindsey Vonn's helmet cam during downhill training at Copper Mountain, Colo., on Monday. (photo: Lindsey Vonn)](http://www.firsttracksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/vonn_helmetcam_copper-300x300.jpg)
“Olympic gold medalist and four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn sustained a mild strain to her right knee, a partial tear to her right ACL, minor facial abrasions and scapular contusions as a result of a downhill training fall Tuesday on the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain,” the U.S. Ski Team announced in a brief statement released yesterday.
Vonn plans to rest for a few days before pursuing aggressive physical therapy to rehabilitate her knee. U.S. Ski Team Medical Director Kyle Wilkens reported her response to the therapy would ultimately determine the timetable for her return to active training.
Vonn, who tore her ACL and MCL, and fractured her right tibia in a crash during the super G at the World Championships in Schladming, Austria in February, returned to on-snow training in Chile at the end of August. She had hoped to return to the World Cup circuit in time for the tour’s swing through North America at Beaver Creek, Colo., later this month.
It’s unclear at this time how much those efforts will be set back by Tuesday’s crash, or whether she’ll now recover sufficiently to compete in Sochi.