Lindsey Vonn reacts after winning the World Cup Women’s Giant Slalom race in Maribor on Jan. 26. (REUTERS)
Laura Kildow, Lindsey Vonn’s sister, reacts to after Vonn’s crash. (REUTERS)
Lindsey Vonn speeds down the slope during the women’s super-G race Tuesday before the crash that injured her knee. (EPA)
Tina Maze of Slovenia reacts after learning that Lindsey Vonn did not complete the race. (REUTERS)
Lindsey Vonn, America’s skiing sweetheart and Tiger Woods’ alleged gal pal, vowed today she’ll recover from a horrific crash in time for next year’s Olympics.
Vonn ripped her knee apart during a terrifying spill at the world championships in Austria yesterday and will be out for the rest of this ski season.
“First off I want to say thank you to the amazing medical staff that cared for me. I plan on returning to Vail as soon as I can to have the necessary surgeries,” Vonn said in a prepared statement today.
“I am also grateful to my fans for the the outpouring of support, which has really helped me stay positive. I can assure you that I will work as hard as humanly possible to be ready to represent my country next year in Sochi.”
The Olympic downhill champion will have surgery next week at home in Vail, Colo. Because of intense media attention, neither she nor the US Ski Team would say when she’s leaving Austria.
“She’ll be heading back to Vail (Colorado) and I will be doing surgery on her knee early next week,” team physician William Sterett told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Vonn was released from the hospital late Tuesday and returned to the team hotel.
“Lindsey is doing well,” said Sterett, who has been treating Vonn since her youth. “She’s in good spirits.”
“The fracture is called an impaction fracture,” Sterett said. “It should not require any surgery. It just needs to be non-weight on crutches.”
Sterett would not set a return date to skiing for Vonn until after the surgery, but other doctors believe she will be sidelined for up to eight months.
The US team said the four-time overall champion will be back in time for the next World Cup season.
The 28-year-old beauty’s right knee buckled while landing a jump in the super-G competition. As she hit the ground, her right leg gave way and she spun forward, throwing an arm out to protect herself. She ended up on her back as she smashed through a gate.
She was airlifted to a local hospital. Vonn won downhill gold and a super-G bronze at the 2012 Vancouver Olympics.
“The hospital staff did an excellent job with X-rays, MRI,” Sterett said. “She had very good care and they were very, very helpful.”
Sterett said Vonn was “a little banged up, and sore everywhere.”
“She’s intently focusing on the next step and the next step now is getting from point A to point B, with point B being next season,” he said. “She’s determined and upbeat.”
Sterett left open the possibility of Vonn requiring more than one surgery, saying that with these types of injuries “that’s always a possibility.”
However, the plan for now was only one operation.
The skiing stunner has been romantically linked to one-time golfing great Woods, a 14-time major tournament winner.
The 37-year-old Woods hasn’t won a big one since the 2008 US Open — about 17 months before his world imploded on Thanksgiving night.
That’s when wife Elin Nordegren confronted him over his rampant off-the-links play with beauties across the country. Woods sped away from the fuming Nordegren and crashed his Cadillac Escalade, setting wheels in motion for disclosure of the extramarital affairs.
Vonn, who bears some resemblance o Nordegren, has been seeing Woods since November, according to Star magazine.
A rep for Woods could not be reached for comment yesterday.
With AP