Lyndsey Vonn Wins Downhill Gold Despite Injury

Despite skiing on a hurt shin ski champion Lindsey Vonn took home the gold for the U.S. on Wednesday. Vonn hurt her shin two weeks ago and was helped out by several days of delays brought on by bad weather in Vancouver.

Vonn announced her injury on February 10th and said she had hurt her shin on February 2nd during a training run in Austria. At the time her ability to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics was in jeopardy, and during the past weekend during training runs Vonn had said her shin was still “throbbing really bad.”

Apparently the pain wasn’t much of a factor today when the two-time World Cup overall champ strapped on her skies and become the first American female to ever take the women’s downhill ski event.

Vonn told the New York Times:

“I couldn’t believe the feeling when I looked up and saw my name with No. 1 next to it,” adding “It was an unbelievable feeling. I didn’t know what to do, so I just fell down.”

Her last comment was in response to her fall to the ground after realizing she had won the gold medal.

So much for a bad finish for the injured Vonn, it makes me wonder what she would have done in perfect health, perhaps a new world record?