Alpine Skiing
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The American champion has had the collateral ligament of his left knee rebuilt. Officially there is no mention of a possible comeback, but let's analyze why we wouldn't exclude it a priori
Thursday 11 April 2019 6 minutes reading time
Lindsey Vonn has accustomed us to always amaze in every context. On and off the track, with an uncommon class and personality in the world of skiing and sports in general.
And so, even if it is good to clarify that the same champion has never questioned her future, now far from the slopes, with so many initiatives already started and linked in particular to the Lindsey Vonn Foundation, it may not be impossible to admire it again with skis at feet for a real race. Having seen her again in the operating room, on April 1 in Vail to reconstruct the collateral ligament of her left knee, has given rise to some doubts to more than one enthusiast because it is not strictly necessary to avoid having problems at the motor level in the everyday life, while wanting to practice some physical activity.
Lindsey had announced, at the beginning of last season and after the umpteenth injury suffered in training, that he would continue until the three races at Lake Louise of the 2019/2020 season, having had to miss his favorite weekend of races in the vintage of his farewell. The pains in the knees, however, stronger and stronger after the return to the January races in "his" Cortina, had then led to the definitive announcement. "I will retire with the descent of the World Cup", and on February 10th the 82 times winner of the World Cup had said goodbye, with a splendid bronze medal around the neck.
COMPETITIVENESS AND RIVALS
So why should Lindsey Vonn return to racing? Obviously, not having beaten the record of the 86 successes of Ingemar Stenmark has weighed all the same to a winner like the native of Minnesota, but it is equally true that the decision to withdraw has coincided with the awareness of struggling more and more to combine the possibility of beating all of them, as he did for most of his incredible career, to the workouts and pains to manage to maintain the necessary level.
It is also true, however, that even a 60% Vonn (like the one seen in the last two seasons) has always been competitive, especially downhill and above all on certain tracks that it would do even with eyes closed, see Lake Louise, Cortina and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Age is certainly not a competitive retirement, even if the injuries have been many and very serious, and the rival park is not impossible to face; Sofia Goggia apart, to be considered the number 1 in the world in fast races without hitches of various kinds, the new injury occurring at Ilka Stuhec will affect the 2019/2020 season of the bi-champion world descent, and at the Slovenian stop must be added those of Mowinckel, Huetter, Veith, Gut (albeit not so serious) and many others, in addition to a decidedly declining Tina Weirather. It is no coincidence, with all due respect, that the Austrians have substantially dominated the downhill season: Schmidhofer and Siebenhofer played the specialty cup with two successes each (in the same location) and there were four other winners (Stuhec , Venier, Goggia, Puchner). A similar speech for the super-g, where Mikaela Shiffrin won the world title and specialty cup, taking part only occasionally and winning all the specialty races held, with the exception of the Soldeu finals.
That's why, by selecting appointments as much as possible, dreaming for a few more months of a new comeback by the strongest downhillist of all times might not be a visionary, considering the character we're talking about ...
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