The 41-year-old was already running with torn ligaments in her left knee when she crashed into a gate 13 seconds into Sunday’s race in Cortina.
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Lost his balance, Vonn was left screaming in pain after falling and was treated on the slope for a long period before being airlifted to Treviso hospital.
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion, competing in his fifth and final Games, subsequently underwent surgery for a broken left leg.
“Yesterday my Olympic dream didn’t end the way I dreamed,” he said in a post on Instagram on Monday.
“It wasn’t the end of a storybook or a fairy tale, it was just life. I dared to dream and I had worked very hard to achieve it.
“While yesterday did not end as I expected and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.
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“Standing at the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing that I was there with a chance to win was a victory in itself.”
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while competing just nine days before the Games began.
The two-time world champion says her ACL tear and her previous injuries, including a partial right knee replacement, “had nothing to do with my accident.”
Vonn’s decision to compete has drawn widespread praise for her bravery, but also criticism about the dangers and potential risk of permanent damage.
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“It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport. And, like ski racing, we take risks in life,” he said.
“We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts break. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that’s also the beauty of life; we can try.
“I hope that if anyone takes anything away from my journey, it is that everyone has the courage to dare a lot. Life is too short not to take risks. Because the only failure in life is not trying.
“I tried. I dreamed. I jumped.”