Lindsey Vonn’s legendary snowboarding profession must be over after she broke her leg throughout a crash on the 2026 Winter Olympics — at the least, in keeping with her dad.
“She’s 41 years previous and that is the top of her profession,” Vonn’s father, Alan Kildowinformed The Related Press on Monday, February 9. “There will likely be no extra ski races for Lindsey Vonn, so long as I’ve something to say about it.”
Kildow has been by his daughter’s aspect in an Italian hospital after she broke her leg simply 13 seconds into the ladies’s downhill occasion on Sunday, February 8.
“She’s a really robust particular person,” Kildow mentioned of his daughter. “She is aware of bodily ache and he or she understands the circumstances that she finds herself in. And he or she’s capable of deal with it. Higher than I anticipated. She’s a really, very robust particular person. And so I believe she’s dealing with it actual effectively.”
Kildow mentioned three of Vonn’s 4 siblings — one brother and each of her sisters — are additionally in Italy.
“She has any individual together with her — or a number of individuals together with her — always,” he defined. “We’ll have individuals right here so long as she’s right here.”
Kildow and Vonn don’t share a final title after Vonn received married to 2002 Olympian and former U.S. Ski Group athlete Thomas Vonn in 2017. The couple introduced they have been getting divorced in November 2011, although Vonn held onto her ex husband’s surname.
Vonn underwent surgical procedure on Sunday after being airlifted off the course by helicopter bringing a tragic finish to her miraculous Olympics return.
“It may be dramatic and traumatic. You’re simply horrified at what these sorts of impacts have,” mentioned Kildow, a former ski racer himself. “You may go right into a shock, an emotional psychological shock. As a result of it’s troublesome to simply settle for what’s occurred. However she’s effectively cared for.”
Kildow added, “The U.S. Ski crew (has) a really, very top-notch physician together with her and he or she is being very effectively cared for right here in Italy.”
Vonn was competing with a totally torn ACL, which she suffered throughout a World Cup crash in Switzerland on January 30.
“What occurred to her had nothing to do with the ACL difficulty on her left leg. Nothing,” Kildow mentioned of the crash on Sunday. “She had demonstrated that she was capable of operate at a really excessive degree with the 2 downhill coaching runs.
He added that Vonn “had been cleared by excessive degree physicians to ski.”
Kildow mentioned that not solely will his daughter’s damage stop her from competing once more on this 12 months’s Olympics, she additionally received’t have the ability to help Group USA in particular person.
“She’s not in that type of scenario,” he mentioned. “She will likely be going dwelling at an applicable cut-off date.”
Vonn’s sister Karin Kidlow watched Sunday’s crash in particular person, telling NBC Information it was “the very last thing we needed to see.”
“It occurred fast. So when that occurs you’re simply instantly hoping she’s OK,” Karin mentioned. “It was scary as a result of once you begin to see the stretchers being put out, that’s not a great signal.”
Karin added, “I do know she put her complete coronary heart into it and typically issues occur.”