Lindsey Vonn’s improbable Olympic dream turned into a nightmare as her shocked family watched on in horror. Forget Miracle on Ice. Vonn was ready to star in the long-awaited sequel, this time on snow, seven years after her retirement.

The 41-year-old suffered a horror crash just ten days ago and still competed in the blue-riband women’s downhill, despite a ruptured ACL.

However, she crashed just 13 seconds into her run, yelling an anguished “oh my God” as the watching crowd, including her father Alan, looked on in stunned silence.

Whether this quest was insanity or vanity is open to debate, but no one can doubt her bravery, as she was airlifted to hospital after being treated on the slope for nearly 30 minutes.

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“She’s in a stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians,” said a team spokesman.

It was later confirmed that Vonn had undergone surgery on a broken leg – the same leg of which she had a torn ACL.

Vonn’s mandatory safety airbag inflated beneath her racing suit during the crash, while she could be heard screaming that she was unable to remove her skis.

“I know she put her whole heart into it and sometimes things just happen,” said sister Karin Kildow.

“It’s a very dangerous sport and there are a lot of variables at play. I don’t really know exactly what happened, but it did look like a pretty rough fall. We’re just all hoping for the best.”

Vonn’s decision to compete in the downhill came as no surprise to those who knew her.

She overcame so many injuries and operations during her two-decade career that she once joked she was “part-titanium”.

In an Instagram post before her race, she told her three million followers: “I will give it everything I have, but no matter what happens, I have already won.”

Returning to skiing was all about this race, and her recent displays underlined that she was a serious contender too.

French snowboarder Pierre Vaultier, who won Olympic gold with a similar injury, claimed she was risking her life. However, her crash had nothing to do with her injury, as her pole became caught in the gate marker while she was airborne.

American team-mate Breezy Johnson took gold just two years after serving a 14-month ban for missing three random doping tests during a 12-month period.

Johnson knows the pain of an anterior cruciate ligament injury herself. She missed the last Games in Beijing after tearing her ACL on the same piste where she won gold here.

“Lindsey’s coach said she was cheering for me in the helicopter, so I hope for the best for her,” she said.

“I hope that it’s not too bad. My heart aches for her. It’s such a brutal sport sometimes.

“I had a good feeling and I can’t really believe it yet. I knew I had to push and go harder than I did in training. I couldn’t afford to be anything other than clean.”

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