Worlds: Vonn's injury serious; slalom up in the air

Val d’Isere, France – In the happy chaos of landing her second World Championship gold medal on Monday, it didn’t initially seem like a big deal when Lindsey Vonn cut her right hand spraying a broken bottle of champagne. But as she herself says, “it’s not just a small cut.”

On Thursday Vonn missed the World Championship giant slalom while recovering from surgery for a torn tendon in her thumb and wasn’t sure if she will be able to compete in Saturday’s final women’s World Champs event – the slalom – or how much the injury could set her back for the rest of the season.

“Slalom is going to be the toughest event for me to ski,” Vonn said at a press conference Thursday, where she sat with her hand bandaged and in a brace. “I don’t think it’s going to be possibe to ski without a lot of pain in slalom. Hopefully we’ll find something that works for the race.”

Vonn’s doctors said the cut on her hand was on the palm side of her thumb – a laceration that went completely through her tendon. The surgery performed on Tuesday in Innsbruck was done to repair the tendon and typically requires six weeks to heel without active use and hard grasping.Val d’Isere, France – In the happy chaos of landing her second World Championship gold medal on Monday, it didn’t initially seem like a big deal when Lindsey Vonn cut her right hand spraying a broken bottle of champagne. But as she herself says, “it’s not just a small cut.”

On Thursday Vonn missed the World Championship giant slalom while recovering from surgery for a torn tendon in her thumb and wasn’t sure if she will be able to compete in Saturday’s final women’s World Champs event – the slalom – or how much the injury could set her back for the rest of the season.

“Slalom is going to be the toughest event for me to ski,” Vonn said at a press conference Thursday, where she sat with her hand bandaged and in a brace. “I don’t think it’s going to be possibe to ski without a lot of pain in slalom. Hopefully we’ll find something that works for the race.”

Vonn’s doctors said the cut on her hand was on the palm side of her thumb – a laceration that went completely through her tendon. The surgery performed on Tuesday in Innsbruck was done to repair the tendon and typically requires six weeks to heel without active use and hard grasping.

As Vonn has proven in such instances as her performance in the 2006 Winter Olympics in which she crashed hard in training but went on to compete despite walking at a painful hobble, such instructions don’t apply to her world.

She will do everything she can to race on Saturday. She plans to train in slalom gates on Friday, which she says will be telltale as to whether or not she can race.

“We’ll see how it is tomorrow in the gates,” she said. “At this point, it looks OK, but I’m not going to say for sure. I’m not going to ski unless I can ski my best. I don’t want to go out there and try to get 15th place. I’m going to go out there and try to win.”

Vonn attempted free skiing on Thursday, but her crew had to duct tape her pole to her hand, as she simply cannot use it to grasp.

“I can’t use my thumb, that’s the problem,” she said. “I’m trying to get used to using my fingers witout using my thumb. Right now it’s really difficult.”

Vonn said such simple motions as dressing herself now present an ordeal and that yes … it hurts.

“Putting on my ski gear took like 45 minutes today,” she said. “The pain is high, but it’s a thumb, so I’m going to deal with it. I’ve dealt with a lot of pain in the past. In Torino, I could hardly walk, but I was skiing. Even if it’s painful, it’s not going to slow me down too much.”

Vonn’s doctors and trainers have already outfitted her with three different braces for various activities, one of which is especially protective for racing. Vonn said that if re-torn, she could do permanent damage to the tendon. She and her crew are already talking about ways, not just to handle slalom gates, but to get into a tuck to race downhill and super G in order to finish the World Cup tour, regardless of if she races in Saturday’s World Champs slalom or not.

“Physically, I feel great. It’s just this stupid thumb that seems to be giving me a lot of problems,” she said. “The doctor said the normal procedure for something like this is to not do anything for three months. I’m obviously not going to stop skiing, so that’s not an option for me. I’m a ski racer. It’s a tough injury, but I’m going to make it work. I have to see tomorrow how the training goes.”

The saddest part of it all is that Vonn’s injury has prevented her from truly soaking up the joy of becoming a two-time World Champion.

“It was supposed to be a wonderful night,” she said. “It turned into total chaos. I didn’t get the chance to celebrate either of my medals.”