ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — Lindsey Vonn didn’t simply pop into the hospital sooner or later, get a brand new titanium knee after which resolve on the best way out that she wished to return to downhill ski racing.
It’s been an extended, calculated course of involving a number of minor and a few main knee surgical procedures, cautious vetting of the medical points concerned after which months of on-snow testing in New Zealand, Austria and Colorado to see how her physique and new knee would react at age 40.
So now that she’s getting ready to step right into a World Cup beginning gate this weekend for the primary time in practically six years for super-G races in St. Moritz on Saturday and Sunday, she’s getting fed up with how a number of of her fellow snowboarding champions are questioning why she would return to the game’s most harmful disciplines at such a complicated age.
“I’ve been thinking about getting a replacement for several years. I did a lot of research. I know people think that I’m insane. But I am actually kind of smart. I have done a few operations, so I know a few doctors. I talked to a lot of them,” Vonn stated. “I talked to (extreme skier) Chris Davenport, who also had a partial knee replacement and he skis like 150 days a year. … So that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Vonn acquired most of her medical recommendation from Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, who has operated on her knees and arm and is affiliated with the U.S. Ski Crew.
“He’s sort of been my guide. He helped me interview doctors from around the world to make sure that they were in it for the right reasons,” Vonn stated. “A lot of doctors said they could fix me and make me better. But generally when you say that right off the bat it’s probably not true.”
Hackett helped Vonn discover Martin Roche, a South Florida-based orthopedist specializing in complicated knee problems.
Hackett already had carried out a “preparation” surgical procedure in July 2023 to attempt to decelerate the necessity for a substitute whereas additionally getting ready different elements of Vonn’s knee for an eventual substitute.
Then, in April, Roche carried out a robot-assisted substitute, slicing off a part of the bone in Vonn’s knee and changing it with two titanium items.
“Once you commit to something you got to commit,” Vonn stated. “Once they’re cutting you open that is what it is. So I did all the front-end research and now I’m reaping the rewards on the back end.”
Pirmin Zurbriggen suggests Vonn may ‘tear her artificial knee to pieces’
However Vonn, who gained a report 43 World Cup downhills earlier than retiring in 2019, has not precisely been given a heat welcome again by some well-known retired skiers.
Two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister urged that “Vonn should see a psychologist,” including on Austrian TV, “Does she want to kill herself?”
Austrian downhill nice Franz Klammer stated “she’s gone completely mad.”
4-time total World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen added his identify to the doubters when he instructed Swiss tabloid Blick on Wednesday that “there is a risk that Vonn will tear her artificial knee to pieces. And in such a way that she will never be able to do any sport properly for the rest of her life.”
“I have the feeling that Vonn hasn’t recognized the meaning and purpose of her other life in recent years,” Zurbriggen added. “She has probably suffered from no longer being a celebrated champion.”
After Zurbriggen’s feedback had been printed, Vonn hit again on social media.
“I’m getting pretty tired of people predicting negative things about my future,” she wrote Wednesday on X. “Did they all become doctors and I missed it, because they talk like they know more than the best doctors in the world.”
Vonn is taking inspiration from Simone Biles
No girl older than 34 has gained a World Cup race. However a number of males have carried out nicely within the sport close to or after 40.
Johan Clarey set the report for the oldest podium finisher with a second-place outcome within the famed Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, at age 42 in January 2023.
“I’m not the first person to do it; I’m just maybe the first woman to do it in ski racing. Simone Biles is the perfect example of what can be done at an older age — and she’s not even old,” Vonn stated of the gymnast who grew to become the oldest girl to win the all-around Olympic title in practically 75 years on the Paris Video games this yr — at 27.
“It’s just outside of the confines of what we believe is the right age for the sport,” Vonn stated. “I don’t think I’m reinventing the wheel. I’m just doing what I feel is right for me but at the same time continuing on what other women have done before me.”
