Lindsey Vonn surprises many but not the luminary

Lindsey Vonn was clear about the injury she sustained during the downhill at Crans-Montana, where she lost her balance during a jump and landed badly: “I completely ruptured my left ACL. I will do everything I can to be in the starting gate on Sunday in Cortina. Obviously it is not what I wanted because I have worked a lot and I know what my chances were before and what they are now, but I am confident that I will be able to get on the track on Sunday” she recounted, after breathing a sigh of relief.

As phenomenal as she is, even for an athlete like the American, it will be very complicated to compete for an Olympic medal in those conditions.

Sunday morning she will be at the starting gate opening on the Olympia of the Tofane and it is to be sworn that she will leave no stone unturned. Andrea Panzeri, an orthopedic luminary who over the years has also followed the careers of Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone, had his say with Corriere del Ticino.

“What I can say is that there are athletes who even with a ruptured ACL still manage to compensate for the instability with musculature, sensitivity, experience, the ability to stay on the ski, the type of slope. The variables that can affect this type of decision, that of competing, are so many” pointed out the head of the Operative Unit of Sport Trauma and Research Center at the San Siro Clinical Institute, who is involved in the Olympics as president of the Medical Commission of the Italian Winter Sports Federation.

“This is not crazy, and Lindsey’s is not even an isolated case – he added. We, as Italy, are doing the same thing with young Flora Tabanelli, who won the World Championships last year. She broke her ACL two months ago and will compete. Then there is a French snowboard cross athlete who got hurt 35 days before Sochi, did not have surgery and took the medal. It all depends on what the acute situation of the knee is like, but we are talking about an athlete of the highest level who knows his body”.

“If, having it in my hands, the knee of one of my top athletes gave me a good feeling, and the professional himself was fine and was in confidence, even I would say to try it” concluded Panzeri.