She’s on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, in a pose that has caused a bit of a stir in the blogosphere. But this morning on “Today” Lindsey Vonn, who is a favorite to win gold in downhill and super giant slalom in Vancouver, talks with Matt Lauer about an “excruciatingly painful” shin injury…
LINDSEY VONN: Well, after the last World Cup race we had in St. Moritz, we went to Austria for a training camp and essentially the first training run that I had, I crashed on the slalom and um, I hurt my shin.
MATT LAUER: Which shin?
LINDSEY VONN: My right shin. And I didn’t. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, it was, I couldn’t walk, I, the first day you know, I was totally unsure of what we were going to do and we were planning on leaving to go home the next day and so we, we changed all of our plans. We stayed over in Europe an extra four days to do therapy with the Red Bull team and um, we, I was freaking out. I thought that a few days before the Olympics, you know, everything is coming, come crashing down.
MATT LAUER: So this happened, from today, how long ago?
LINDSEY VONN: A week.
MATT LAUER: One week ago today.
LINDSEY VONN: Yeah
MATT LAUER: And right now how much pain are you in?
LINDSEY VONN: I actually can walk normally now without pain but I tried putting on my boot a few times and it’s very painful.
MATT LAUER: So obviously for people who aren’t skiers, someone like you who is an aggressive skier, that boot hits you right on the shin that you’re talking about (LINDSEY VONN: Exactly) and as you flex forward for speed, there is a lot of contact there.
LINDSEY VONN: Yeah. I mean, when I tried my boot on, I was just standing in the hotel room barely flexing forward and it was excruciatingly painful and I’ve got to try to ski downhill at 75, 80 miles an hour with a lot of forces pushed up against my shin and I don’t honestly know if I’ll be able to do it.