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Vonn’s Olympic downhill dream lasted 12.5 seconds
American ski star Lindsey Vonn was airlifted by helicopter after falling 13 seconds into the descent. We’re joined by alpine ski analyst Brian Stemmle to take a look at what happened at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center.
Ski racing is a race against time. Timing is everything.
The women’s Olympic downhill won by 0.04 seconds. If you’re one second behind, that’s a lot in a ski race.
Racers make small adjustments during their rides to become as aerodynamic as possible.
Today, that it took only 12.5 seconds for Vonn to lose control. She fell in the upper part of the Olimpia delle Tofane, a downhill course in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“That’s where your speed is determined until the end of the track,” Kristian Ghedina, a former Italian runner who grew up in Cortina, told Reuters. “If you don’t take the right path, it makes a big difference because you end up going uphill.”
The top has turns that are unrelenting — including an uphill turn with a crucial right turn. That’s where Vonn fell.
“The goal is to be as close to that door as possible,” said Norwegian skier Kajsa Vickhoff Lie. “But she was too close to it, so she got hooked on it.”
Then things went very wrong.
Vonn was thrown off the final bump of the hill. Lie noted that bump was “more of a bump” in this year’s downhill, causing Vonn to suddenly jump into the air.
If you watched the video, you know the rest.
– With files from Reuters
