Skier Lindsey Vonn Considering Immediate Retirement Due To Injuries

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn has “so much to process” that she is going to take a few days to decide her future.

Battling pain her knees and after failing to finish better than ninth in three races this weekend, Vonn said on Sunday that immediate retirement from ski racing “is a possibility.”

A message from U.S. Ski Team spokeswoman Megan Harrod on Monday says Vonn “is going to take the next couple/few days to think about how she will proceed and process everything, and then decide about how she will move forward based on that.”

Vonn had been out all season with a left knee injury and she has also had numerous injuries to her right knee during her record-breaking career.

The 34-year-old Vonn raced over the weekend with braces on her knees.

Vonn had been planning on retiring in December and she was hoping to compete in one last major championship, the worlds in Are, Sweden, next month.

“I have so much to process but before I do that I need to thank @cortinaclassic for all of the love and support this weekend,” Vonn tweeted on Monday. “From the organizers, to the fans, and even the journalists; everyone was so kind to me in my emotional state. And above all, thank you to the athletes who were thoughtful enough to comfort me, you made my last run in cortina so special.”

Vonn has 82 World Cup victories — best all-time among women — and four fewer than record-holder Ingemar Stenmark.

“I’ve had four surgeries on my right knee. I’ve got no LCL (lateral collateral ligament) on my left knee. I’ve got two braces on,” Vonn said on Sunday. “There’s only so much I can handle and I might have reached my maximum.”

(Copyright 2019 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)