Lindsey Vonn optimistic after knee gives out in downhill race (video)

Lindsey Vonn
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Lindsey Vonn said she didn’t cause greater harm to her surgically repaired right knee when it “completely gave out” and caused her to ski out of a downhill race in Val d’Isere, France, on Saturday.

Vonn appeared to lose her balance, briefly lifted her left ski off the snow and missed a gate, raising concern over her comeback from major knee surgery.

The Olympic downhill champion was well into her run when she was reduced to a glide toward safety netting. Once she came to a stop, Vonn leaned over. She grimaced and clutched her left knee, according to The Associated Press.

In post-race quotes, Vonn said she will take one or two weeks off with her main goal still Sochi, according to the official Val d’Isere event Twitter account.

“I didn’t hurt myself more than I’m already hurt,” Vonn said, according to the AP. “It was a small compression, and it was fully loaded on the right ski and my knee just completely gave out. I tried to pressure the ski again and it gave out again. I had no chance of making that gate, unfortunately.”

Vonn said she thought her next race would be “sometime in January,” according to the AP.

“I’m going to stick to a similar plan that I was on before. I just need to be more careful of how many races I do,” she said. “I’m at risk of doing more damage to my knee and my meniscus. So I’m going to play it safe and race really minimal races. Probably one or two before the Olympics.”

Here’s how The Associated Press described what happened Saturday:

She lost her balance and her left ski went up in the air, putting all her weight on her surgically repaired right knee as she skied off course. She didn’t fall but grimaced as she pulled up, clutching her knee in a worrying sign ahead of the Sochi Olympics.

Vonn, 29, was in the fourth race of her comeback from blowing out her right knee at the World Championships in Schladming, Austria, in February.

She reinjured the right knee on Nov. 19, delaying her World Cup return to Dec. 6. Vonn placed 40th, 11th and fifth in three races in Lake Louise, Alberta, two weeks ago.

Vonn had said she wanted to reach a World Cup podium before the Sochi Olympics and that she might race a limited schedule to avoid risking further injury to her knee.

Vonn raced with a knee brace under her ski suit on Saturday and with boyfriend Tiger Woods watching near the finish.

Swiss Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden notched her first World Cup win in 1 minute, 47.28 seconds, on Saturday.

Reigning World Cup overall champion Tina Maze was second, .29 behind, for her best finish in 12 races this season.

Americans struggled. Leanne Smith was the best in 14th, followed by Olympic downhill silver medalist Julia Mancuso in 21st. Mancuso hasn’t finished better than 12th in 10 races this season.

Alice McKennis was 43rd out of 43 finishers in her first World Cup race since shattering her right tibial plateau into about 30 pieces in March.

Val d’Isere Downhill
1. Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden (SUI) 1:47.28
2. Tina Maze (SLO) 1:47.57
3. Cornelia Huetter (AUT) 1:47.80
4. Tina Weirather (LIE) 1:47.91
5. Lotte Smiseth Sejersted (NOR) 1:48.22
6. Fraenzi Aufdenblatten (SUI) 1:48.30
7. Dominique Gisin (SUI) 1:48.31
8. Kajsa Kling (SWE) 1:48.47
9. Maria Hoefl-Riesch (GER) 1:48.49
10. Elisabeth Goergl (AUT) 1:48.56
14. Leanne Smith (USA) 1:48.79
21. Julia Mancuso (USA) 1:49.09
43. Alice McKennis (USA) 1:52.02
DNF. Lindsey Vonn (USA)
DNF. Laurenne Ross (USA)
DNF. Stacey Cook (USA)

Lindsey Vonn ponders World Cup career wins record

French Open: Iga Swiatek rolls toward possible Coco Gauff rematch

Iga Swiatek
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Iga Swiatek reached the French Open third round without dropping a set, eyeing a third Roland Garros title in four years. Not that she needed the help, but Swiatek’s immediate draw is wide open after the rest of the seeds in her section lost.

Swiatek dispatched 102nd-ranked American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday, the same score as her first-round win. She gets 80th-ranked Wang Xinyu of China in the round of 32.

The other three seeds in Swiatek’s section all lost in the first round, so the earliest that the world No. 1 could play another seed is the quarterfinals. And that would be No. 6 Coco Gauff, who was runner-up to Swiatek last year.

Gauff plays her second-round match later Thursday against 61st-ranked Austrian Julia Grabher. Gauff also doesn’t have any seeds in her way before a possible Swiatek showdown.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Swiatek, who turned 22 on Wednesday, came into this year’s French Open without the invincibility of a year ago, when she was 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury, but said it wasn’t serious. That diagnosis appears to have been spot-on through two matches this week, though her serve was broken twice in the first set of each match.

While the men’s draw has been upended by 14-time champion Rafael Nadal‘s pre-event withdrawal and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev‘s loss in the first round, the top women have taken care of business.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan also reached the third round without dropping a set.

Though all of them have beaten Swiatek in 2023, the Pole remains the favorite to lift the trophy a week from Saturday. She can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

She can also become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

Swiatek doesn’t dwell on it.

“I never even played Serena or Monica Seles,” she said. “I’m kind of living my own life and having my own journey.”

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Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships

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Seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak of Canada will miss July’s world swimming championships because she does not expect to be recovered enough from knee and shoulder injuries.

“The bar that we set was, can she be as good as she’s ever been at these world championships?” coach Ryan Mallette said in a press release. “We just don’t feel like we’re going to be ready to be 100 percent yet this summer. Our focus is to get her back to 100 percent as soon as possible to get ready for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

Oleksiak, who owns the Canadian record of seven Olympic medals (across all sports), missed Canada’s trials meet for worlds two months ago due to the injuries. She was still named to the team at the time in hope that she would be ready in time for worlds.

The 22-year-old returned to competition last month at a Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, after which she chose to focus on continued rehab rather than compete at worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.

“Swimming at Mare Nostrum was a checkpoint for worlds, and I gave it my best shot,” Oleksiak said in the release. “We reviewed my swims there, and it showed me the level I want to get back to. Now I need to focus on my rehab to get back to where I want to be and put myself in position to be at my best next season.”

Oleksiak had knee surgery last year to repair a meniscus. After that, she developed a left shoulder injury.

In 2016, Oleksiak tied for Olympic 100m freestyle gold with American Simone Manuel. She also earned 100m butterfly silver in Rio and 200m free bronze in Tokyo, along with four relay medals between those two Games.

At last year’s worlds, she earned four relay medals and placed fourth in the 100m free.

She anchored the Canadian 4x100m free relay to silver behind Australia at the most recent Olympics and worlds.

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