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Vonn evaluated by Vail doctor after training-run crash at Copper Mountain

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November 19, 2013, 3:56 pm

Vail’s Lindsey Vonn crashed during a training run on the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain Tuesday morning, just a week before her planned comeback at a women’s World Cup race on the new Raptor course at Beaver Creek.

Lindsey Vonn crash

Lindsey Vonn, shown here in a file photo, crashed while training at Copper Mountain on Tuesday.

Contrary to initial reports, Vonn, the defending Olympic downhill champion, was not admitted to a local hospital, nor was it immediately clear if she had reinjured her right knee.

“Lindsey crashed earlier this morning while training at Copper Mountain in Colorado,” Vonn spokesman Lewis Kay said in an email statement. “She was not admitted to the hospital and is currently being evaluated by Dr. [William] Sterett back in Vail. We expect to have clarity on the situation in the next 24 hours.”

Sterett, a surgeon with Vail-Summit Orthopedics, repaired Vonn’s right knee after she blew it out in a crash at the World Championships in Schladming, Austria, last February.

Vonn has been training on snow this fall and during a press event Nov. 8 in Vail declared herself 100-percent healthy and ready to return to action at the Beaver Creek races Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

“I honestly don’t feel it,” Vonn said of her right knee at the time. “I don’t do anything differently because of my knee. I’m training as if I’m 100 percent healthy, which I am, so it’s business as usual for me and it’s not getting swollen, it doesn’t hurt, I don’t feel it.”

Vonn did say that Sterett insisted she keep wearing a brace on the knee, something she said she’s willing to do up until the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.

Vonn was planning to get in as much downhill training as possible on the full-length course at Copper Mountain and the new course at Beaver Creek. Official downhill training runs are scheduled to start Tuesday, Nov. 26, with the actual women’s downhill on Friday, Nov. 29.

Vonn skipped the opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, last month, and a slalom in Levi, Finland, last weekend, choosing instead to train at home and get ready to return to action at Beaver Creek – a mountain where she won on the men’s course in 2011.

“It would be huge for me if I could win in Beaver Creek,” Vonn said Nov. 8. “Obviously, that’s expecting a lot with my first race back, but I feel like I don’t have any pressure honestly. It’s not like … two years ago when we had the race at Beaver Creek. I’m coming back from injury.”

Now that comeback may take longer.

Officials with both Vail-Summit Orthopedics and the U.S. Ski Team could not offer any additional details about Vonn’s injury.

Vonn is a four-time overall World Cup champion, two-time Olympic medalist and is just four World Cup wins from setting a new all-time career victory record.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.