Lindsey Vonn is certainly no stranger to crashes and injury.
Over the course of her career, the American has made frequent trips from the slope to the hospital with varying degrees of damage to her body.
Here is a brief synopsis of Vonn’s injury history:
2017-18 World Cup: Vonn jarred her back in a Dec. 9 super-G, calling the injury an acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction. She gingerly walked with aid to congratulate the race winner, then skipped the following day’s race before returning to the World Cup circuit the following week.
2016-17 World Cup: On Nov. 10, Vonn suffers a severely fractured humerus bone in her right arm in a training crash in Copper Mountain, Colo. The injury requires surgery.
Vonn had hoped to make her season debut either two or three weeks later, but her latest setback puts her return into question as well as her pursuit of the career World Cup wins record. She’s at 76, needing 10 more to reach Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn won eight and nine races the last two seasons.
2015-16 World Cup: In New Zealand preseason training Aug. 13, Vonn crashed and fractured an ankle. She missed the World Cup opener Oct. 24 but returned for the following giant slalom Nov. 27.
On Feb. 27, Vonn crashed in a super-G in Andorra, was taken off the course in a sled and learned she suffered one hairline left knee fracture. She raced the next day, finishing 13th in a super combined.
Two days after that, Vonn underwent more scans that showed she suffered three, larger fractures rather than the one hairline, forcing her to end her season while leading the World Cup overall standings, eight races from a possible fifth World Cup overall title.
2013-14 World Cup: While preparing to come back from knee surgery at Beaver Creek, Vonn crashed during a training run at Copper Mountain, Colo. She was taken off the slope on a sled and underwent an MRI and said she sustained a mild strain and partial tear of the ACL in her right knee, minor facial abrasions and scapular contusions from her fall.
It turned out that she had a complete ACL tear, which she compounded with MCL and joint damage when she skied out of the downhill in Val d’Isere on Dec. 21. On Jan. 7, Vonn was forced to withdraw from the Sochi Olympics and didn’t return to World Cup action until December 2014.
2013 World Championships: In her opening race in Schladming, Austria, Vonn crashed hard during the super-G and needed to be airlifted off the mountain to a nearby hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with tears of the medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in her right knee and a fractured tibial plateau, all of which resulted in season-ending surgery.
2011 World Championships: One week before the start of competition, Vonn crashed during giant slalom training in Kintereit, Austria. Although she walked away from the incident with no major injuries, she did suffer a concussion in the collision. After much debate, she decided to compete in Garmish-Partenkirchen where she finished second in the downhill and seventh in super-G.
2010 Olympics: Vonn came to the Vancouver Games banged up, having bruised her right shin during pre-Olympic workouts in Austria. Putting on a ski boot resulted in “excruciating” pain, but she competed through it and won gold in the downhill and bronze in the super-G. Vonn crashed during the giant slalom, breaking her right pinkie, and then crashed out of the slalom run of the super-combined competition.
2009-10 World Cup: Just weeks before the Olympics, Vonn suffered a violent crash during her first giant slalom run in Lienz, Austria. She was taken to the hospital where doctors diagnosed her with swelling and microfractures in her left forearm. She continued to ski after the injury.
2009 World Championships: In perhaps the most bizarre injury of Vonn’s career, she sliced open her right thumb on a broken champagne bottle while celebrating her victory in the downhill in Val d’Isere, France. The incident left her with a cut tendon, which required surgery, but did not prevent her from skiing the remainder of that season. She went on to earn nine World Cup podium finishes.
2007 World Championships: The technical events continued to cause Vonn trouble in Are, Sweden where she crashed in a slalom training run and suffered a season-ending ACL sprain. Fortunately for her, she won silver medals in the downhill and super-G prior to the crash.
2006 Olympics: Vonn’s second Olympic appearance did not get off to a good start as she crashed during a downhill training run and was airlifted by helicopter off the mountain in Torino. The incident left her with a bruised hip but did not knock her from the Games. Two days later, she finished eighth in the downhill.
VIDEO: Vonn meets Ingemar Stenmark
