Lindsey Vonn’s Knee Healing Faster Than Expected

Lindsey Vonn’s knee is healing faster than expected after surgery almost two weeks ago. The Olympic skier was injured during the super-G slalom race in Schladming, Austria on February 5.

Vonn, whose surgery repaired the ACL and MCL in her left knee, also stated that organizers should have postponed the race for deteriorating course conditions.

The race was postponed for 3 and 1/2 hours because of fog on the course, reports The Associated Press. But Vonn believes that the race should have been changed, because conditions dramatically changed during the delay.

The World Cup champion stated that she inspected the hill early in the morning and she “did not think it was safe” to race on the soft snow.

After Lindsey Vonn’s crash, the women’s race director for the International Ski Federation, Atle Skaardal, defended the decision to continue the race. She explained, “I don’t see that any outside factors played a role in this accident.”

But Vonn disagreed. They did eventually stop the event, but it was not immediately after the crash. Conditions varied from racer to racer and the sun began to go down, notes Yahoo! News.

Vonn’s recovery is going fast enough that the champion racer hopes to be back on the slopes for the beginning of the World Cup season in November. She added, however, that she may be off by a month in either direction, depending how her knee responds when she starts training again.

She’s already hoping to be the underdog of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She added that her injury makes her the “underdog.” Vonn added:

“That will help ease the pressure a little bit. I have no doubt I’m going to be back and be able to ski the same, if not better, than I did before. It’s just going to take some time.”

But if her injured knee is healing faster than expected, we may see Lindsey Vonn out on the slopes again before November.

[Image by Gerwig Loffelholz (Gerwig Loffelholz) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]