Lindsey Vonn (AP)
World class skier Lindsey Vonn says she will be ready for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games despite suffering a devastating leg injury earlier this month.
Vonn, who has won four World Cup Championships and won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Olympics, tore her ACL, MCL and fractured her tibia in her right leg on February 5 at the Alpine skiing world championships in Austria.
“Right now my goal is to be back for 2014 in Sochi,” Vonn said on the TODAY show Monday morning. “Honestly, in a worst-case scenario, if I trained a week before the Games, I’d be fine.
“I have plenty of time to be ready for Sochi.”
In her first televised interview since the accident, the 28-year-old Vonn described the moments after the harrowing injury but said she knew almost immediately she would be able to return to the slopes.
“I initially thought it was going to be worse,’’ Vonn said. “There was just so much pain that I couldn’t quite tell where exactly it was coming from.
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“I knew what was wrong with me within five minutes of getting there, so everything happened pretty quick. I didn’t think it was going to be the end of my career.’’
Vonn’s interview comes days after she criticized the race jury and their decision to let the event go on despite foggy conditions and soft snow.
“I don’t think the jury made the right call,” Vonn said in a teleconference with journalists Friday. “The fog came in and delayed the start of the race. When I was at the start, I was ready to go, but I had no idea what the course conditions were. I inspected the course at 8 a.m. and I ran the course at about 3:15.”
She said by the time she hit the slopes, the conditions had deteriorated so much that it was unbelievable that the race was allowed to be run.
“I skied aggressively, but when I was skiing, I couldn’t believe the conditions,” Vonn said. “The snow was too soft. It had broken down. I didn’t think it was safe.”
Despite all of that, Vonn felt that the injury and controversy would not deter her from getting back to skiing.
“I know I can [return with no fear],’’ she said. “That’s just who I am.’
“I feel like I have a lot more left to do.”