The Olympics are not always an easy event to watch. American skier Lindsey Vonn attempted to cap an improbable comeback with a ruptured ACL she suffered a week ago. Her return ended in a violent, heartbreaking crash less than 14 seconds into her run. But on the same mountain, fellow American Breezy Johnson found a gold medal she once thought was not attainable. Elsewhere, the world's best figure skater, American Ilia Malinin took on the pressure and helped Team USA capture gold in the team event. Mitch Goldich and Dan Gartland broke down Sunday's events in the latest Daily Rings Podcast. |
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated |
The 41-year-old's devastating crash in the women's downhill sent shockwaves through the Milan Cortina Olympics, but it doesn't mean it was all for nothing. |
By Pat Forde As the terrible event transpired on the big screen in front of a packed grandstand, there was an instantaneous spasm of sound and dismay—gasps, screams, hands on heads, hands covering mouths. And then there was a shocked, mournful, devastatingly heavy silence. Has an Olympic venue ever gone as quiet as this one, at the base of Olympia delle Tofane? Coming out of the starting gate at high noon local time, wearing luckless bib No. 13, American ski legend Lindsey Vonn crashed in violent, hard-to-watch fashion. An age-defying comeback that was years in the making was obliterated in a sloppy instant. It was a mercilessly stark reminder of the steep price to be paid for mistakes at high speed on veritable ice. Just 13 seconds into her run, Vonn's right ski pole snagged the fourth gate, sending her careening sideways in the air. Not even the greatest speed racer in the history of her sport could save that situation in mid-air, and the landing was terrifying: Vonn's 41-year-old body hammered back to earth and was briefly obscured by a cloud of erupting snow, then her legs splayed out as she tumbled farther down the hill. By the time she came to rest on her back, skis pointing in opposite directions, a hugely anticipated ski race became a medical emergency. |
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In this edition of the Daily Rings podcast, Mitch and Dan dissect American Lindsey Vonn's bold attempt to ski with a ruptured ACL and the surprise gold medal for a fellow American on the same slopes. Plus, they discuss all of Sunday's events. |
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Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated |
By Pat Forde Breezy Johnson has been there before. She has been the one crashing, sustaining devastating injury, seeing an Olympic medal hope suddenly vanish. She knows the resulting pain to body and soul. Now she knows the other side. The pinch-me side. The side where you slash down a mountain faster than anyone as the whole world watches, and they put a gold medal around your neck, and you try to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" but you're too busy crying to get through it all. "That's the beauty and the madness of it," Johnson said on a Sunday of extremes for American downhillers. "That it can hurt you so badly, but you keep coming back for more." Lindsey Vonn's comeback story ended in a violent collision of body and mountain on Olympia delle Tofane, sending her to the hospital. Johnson's comeback story had the happy ending she'd dreamed of for four years. |
Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images |
By Michael Rosenberg The one hard truth about the Olympics is that no matter who you are, or how you got here, the pressure will find you. Sometimes it lands in your stomach and starts stomping around until you feel sick. Sometimes it runs circles around your head, and you feel dizzy but you don't know why. The stomach is preferable. Ilia Malinin found that out this weekend. Malinin is 21, and calling him the best male figure skater in the world doesn't quite capture it. He is a phenomenon, the Quad God, Simone Biles on skates. Imagine his surprise, then, when he skated the short program in the team event Saturday, and—by his standards, anyway—made a mess of it. He finished second, well behind Japan's Yuma Kagiyama. At first, Malinin thought his uneven performance was "just out of nowhere." He could have left it at that. It was just the team event. He is Ilia Malinin. No reason to worry. "I had to sit around for a few hours, thinking [about] why that happened yesterday in the short program," Malinin said Sunday night. "It came to: I didn't really understand the impact of the Olympic environment. I think that was the reason why." |
United States- 🥇2 🥈0 🥉0 (2) |
Switzerland - 🥇1 🥈0 🥉0 (1) |
South Korea- 🥇0 🥈1 🥉0 (1) |
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated |
American skier Breezy Johnson goes airborne en route to a gold medal performance. |
- 6:30 a.m. ET: Women's skiing freeski slopestyle final (USA Network) MEDAL 🏅
- 7:50 a.m. ET: Alpine Skiing Men's team combined, slalom (USA Network) MEDAL 🏅
- 11 a.m. ET: Luge Women's singles (Run 1; USA Network)
- 11:30 a.m. ET: Women's speedskating 1000m final (USA Network; NBC coverage at 12 p.m. ET) MEDAL 🏅
- 12 p.m. ET: Men's Ski jumping normal hill MEDAL 🏅
- 12:30 p.m. ET: Luge Women's singles (Run 2; USA Network)
- 1:30 p.m. ET: Women's Snowboarding big air final (NBC) MEDAL 🏅
- 2:40 p.m. ET: Women's Hockey: U.S. vs. Switzerland (USA Network)
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