Lindsey Vonn’s crash was cruel. Her bravery epitomizes Olympic spirit

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — This was always the risk Lindsey Vonn was willing to take.

She knew skiing at these Olympics was a gamble, as likely to end in pain and disappointment as in glory and gold. But life favors the bold. Whatever her physical injuries are now, that pain and those scars will eventually fade.

Regrets and what ifs last forever.                                                                                                                                        

But there was a horrifying numbness to it, too, knowing that a story that’s captivated so many was not going to end triumphantly or even happily. Vonn had brought everyone along on her ride, giving the mere mortals among us a glimpse of what it’s like to live life with abandon. And now it was done.

“She just dared greatly and she put it all out there,” Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, told NBC after the crash.

“She always goes 110%. There’s never anything less,” Kildow added. “So I know she put her whole heart into it, and sometimes just like things happen.”

When we’re kids, we charge at life head-first because we don’t know any better. The world is one of endless possibilities, where we really can be an astronaut or a superhero.

Or an Olympic champion.

For most of us, though, that fearlessness fades. Our audaciousness is tempered by consequences and repercussions. By the mundane responsibilities that come with growing up. We learn to live with good rather than dreaming of great.

Not Vonn.

Part of her appeal has always been her refusal to give up or accept defeat. Vonn has endured injuries and heartbreaks too many to count, and she keeps coming back for more. Tell her she can’t do something, and she’ll work two, three, four times as hard. Suggest something is not a good idea, and she takes it as a challenge.

She lives life on her terms, uninterested in someone else’s constraints.

“It’s kind of the way we operated as a family. We always wanted to do the best that we could and we had always high ambitions for ourselves,” Vonn said last fall.

“And I think it’s also a lot easier for yourself if you reframe everything in a way that gives you the power,” Vonn added. “I don’t like external pressure in the sense that I’m doing something for somebody else. I’m doing it for me, and I’m driven by my own aspirations.”

It’s why she was on this mountain in the first place.

But her decision to retire in 2019 was not really a choice. Her body was broken down, her right knee, in particular, ravaged from her many injuries. So when she felt better than she had in decades after a partial replacement of her right knee in April 2024, Vonn decided to give ski racing a go again.

And so many of us cheered it because we were living vicariously through her, having the guts to do something we wanted without caring what anyone else thought or worrying about what could go wrong. Vonn was living in the moment, and she was doing it at full volume.

Even after a crash nine days ago left her with a torn ACL, bone bruising and meniscus damage in her left knee, Vonn was undaunted.

The easy thing would have been to head home and recuperate, accepting that maybe it wasn’t meant to be. But where’s the fun in that? Why not at least try?

Maybe she’d succeed. Maybe she’d fail. Maybe she’d end somewhere in between.

But she’d never have to wonder.

“I will race tomorrow in my final Olympic Downhill and while I can’t guarantee a good result, I can guarantee I will give it everything I have,” Vonn wrote in an Instagram post the night before the race.

“But no matter what happens, I have already won.”

Yes, Lindsey Vonn crashed. In spectacular fashion. But at least she was brave enough to take the risk, which is more than most of us can ever say.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.