Anonymous
02/09/2026 11:50
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of her. She loves spotlights
Says the misogynist. A Buffalo Bill played through a playoff game recently that he tore his ACL during. He was called heroic.
Eh, not really. You are not familiar how this works - every single NFL player is dealing with some sort of ailment at the end of the year. No one is calling him a hero (other than the most ridiculous fan), it's just what happens and the teams love saying this after the season when they lost to provide cover.
Except that I am. He was healthy prior to the injury. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47602037/bills-tyrell-shavers-played-torn-acl-2nd-half-vs-jaguars
DP. It was dumb for him to go out and play on the injury. And I said it at the time.
But when he is called "heroic" it's because he's part of a team. It is viewed as a sacrifice he made for his team, to give them a chance to win the game. Josh Allen apparently played on a broken foot and yes, that was deemed "heroic" because without him the Bills never would have had a chance. Also, teams often have limited options for replacing a player, especially mid-game -- the backup might be terrible. In some cases, the backup might also have an injury.
Downhill skiing is not a team sport. So the dynamics are different. Vonn didn't benefit her teammates by choosing to compete, and it could be seen as selfish because had she bowed out due to her injury, a healthy American skier would have had a chance to ski in the Olympics. It's really hard to see her choose to ski and then have this accident almost immediately -- it feels like a wasted opportunity for a younger skier who, even if they had not medaled at this Olympics, might have gotten important experience that could help with their future career. Whereas Vonn's career is all but over.
That’s not the way skiing works. They couldn’t have just swapped her out for a different American
That's true, but it's an individual sport and another, healthy, skier would have gotten a start in her place if she'd dropped. I'm not sure how much it matters whether that skier would have been American or not (I actually don't know and am too lazy to look it up).
I think actually that there would have just been one less competitor.
Nope, both wrong. Had Vonn withdrawn from the Olympics, the US would have been been allowed to sub in another qualified skier, as long as that skier was ranked within the top 30 of the FIS World Cup Start List. The US has a bunch of skiers on that list -- Allison Mollin, Isabella Wright, Keely Cashman, Haley Cutler. I know for a fact that Mollin was pretty devastated to miss out on an Olympic spot and would have jumped at the chance.
We can debate whether it was right for Vonn to attempt to ski given her injury, but there's no question to me that if she'd withdrawn, another young American skier would have had a chance to ski.
Anonymous
02/09/2026 11:03
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of her. She loves spotlights
Says the misogynist. A Buffalo Bill played through a playoff game recently that he tore his ACL during. He was called heroic.
Eh, not really. You are not familiar how this works - every single NFL player is dealing with some sort of ailment at the end of the year. No one is calling him a hero (other than the most ridiculous fan), it's just what happens and the teams love saying this after the season when they lost to provide cover.
Except that I am. He was healthy prior to the injury. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47602037/bills-tyrell-shavers-played-torn-acl-2nd-half-vs-jaguars
DP. It was dumb for him to go out and play on the injury. And I said it at the time.
But when he is called "heroic" it's because he's part of a team. It is viewed as a sacrifice he made for his team, to give them a chance to win the game. Josh Allen apparently played on a broken foot and yes, that was deemed "heroic" because without him the Bills never would have had a chance. Also, teams often have limited options for replacing a player, especially mid-game -- the backup might be terrible. In some cases, the backup might also have an injury.
Downhill skiing is not a team sport. So the dynamics are different. Vonn didn't benefit her teammates by choosing to compete, and it could be seen as selfish because had she bowed out due to her injury, a healthy American skier would have had a chance to ski in the Olympics. It's really hard to see her choose to ski and then have this accident almost immediately -- it feels like a wasted opportunity for a younger skier who, even if they had not medaled at this Olympics, might have gotten important experience that could help with their future career. Whereas Vonn's career is all but over.
That’s not the way skiing works. They couldn’t have just swapped her out for a different American
That's true, but it's an individual sport and another, healthy, skier would have gotten a start in her place if she'd dropped. I'm not sure how much it matters whether that skier would have been American or not (I actually don't know and am too lazy to look it up).
I think actually that there would have just been one less competitor.
Anonymous
02/09/2026 10:22
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of her. She loves spotlights
Says the misogynist. A Buffalo Bill played through a playoff game recently that he tore his ACL during. He was called heroic.
Eh, not really. You are not familiar how this works - every single NFL player is dealing with some sort of ailment at the end of the year. No one is calling him a hero (other than the most ridiculous fan), it's just what happens and the teams love saying this after the season when they lost to provide cover.
Except that I am. He was healthy prior to the injury. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47602037/bills-tyrell-shavers-played-torn-acl-2nd-half-vs-jaguars
DP. It was dumb for him to go out and play on the injury. And I said it at the time.
But when he is called "heroic" it's because he's part of a team. It is viewed as a sacrifice he made for his team, to give them a chance to win the game. Josh Allen apparently played on a broken foot and yes, that was deemed "heroic" because without him the Bills never would have had a chance. Also, teams often have limited options for replacing a player, especially mid-game -- the backup might be terrible. In some cases, the backup might also have an injury.
Downhill skiing is not a team sport. So the dynamics are different. Vonn didn't benefit her teammates by choosing to compete, and it could be seen as selfish because had she bowed out due to her injury, a healthy American skier would have had a chance to ski in the Olympics. It's really hard to see her choose to ski and then have this accident almost immediately -- it feels like a wasted opportunity for a younger skier who, even if they had not medaled at this Olympics, might have gotten important experience that could help with their future career. Whereas Vonn's career is all but over.
That’s not the way skiing works. They couldn’t have just swapped her out for a different American
That's true, but it's an individual sport and another, healthy, skier would have gotten a start in her place if she'd dropped. I'm not sure how much it matters whether that skier would have been American or not (I actually don't know and am too lazy to look it up).
Anonymous
02/09/2026 10:20
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
I thought this was interesting. Janik Sinner (world #2 on the ATP -- Italian tennis player) did an interview with Vogue about the Olympic Games since his country is hosting. Sinner also was a very competitive skier in his teens, and actually took up tennis after skiing, so he has a stronger connection to these games than most -- grew up skiing Cortina and trained with some of the Italian skiers.
He was asked about Vonn skiing on her torn ACL and mentioned they are friends, and simply said "the greatest athletes -- they have a lot of courage." He also talks about how he had to decide to scale back skiing 4-5 years ago because of the risk of injury (presumably because of the potential impact on his tennis career, which makes sense) and about the difference between ski racing and tennis:
With your skiing history, is there anything that you miss, or miss being able to do?
I would say the adrenaline. And to be honest, that’s the only thing I really miss. I would say that skiing has this different sort of pressure, though. You need to perform well by not really knowing where you’re standing. In tennis, you have a huge hand, because you always know the score. And you know that, at times, maybe you can play at 80% just to get through. That’s enough for that day. But skiing is not like this at all. You just go, and you have no idea [until it’s done].
I hadn’t thought about that. You’ve got nothing to compare yourself to, and there’s nothing to calibrate against. You just have to go full-throttle.
Yes. So you have this pressure, and [for me] this turned into mostly, also, doubts. So I think maybe I enjoyed the competition part a little bit less. But, for what I miss, I would say for sure the adrenaline. I miss going fast.
He was asked about Vonn skiing on her torn ACL and mentioned they are friends, and simply said "the greatest athletes -- they have a lot of courage." He also talks about how he had to decide to scale back skiing 4-5 years ago because of the risk of injury (presumably because of the potential impact on his tennis career, which makes sense) and about the difference between ski racing and tennis:
With your skiing history, is there anything that you miss, or miss being able to do?
I would say the adrenaline. And to be honest, that’s the only thing I really miss. I would say that skiing has this different sort of pressure, though. You need to perform well by not really knowing where you’re standing. In tennis, you have a huge hand, because you always know the score. And you know that, at times, maybe you can play at 80% just to get through. That’s enough for that day. But skiing is not like this at all. You just go, and you have no idea [until it’s done].
I hadn’t thought about that. You’ve got nothing to compare yourself to, and there’s nothing to calibrate against. You just have to go full-throttle.
Yes. So you have this pressure, and [for me] this turned into mostly, also, doubts. So I think maybe I enjoyed the competition part a little bit less. But, for what I miss, I would say for sure the adrenaline. I miss going fast.
Anonymous
02/09/2026 10:04
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of her. She loves spotlights
Says the misogynist. A Buffalo Bill played through a playoff game recently that he tore his ACL during. He was called heroic.
Eh, not really. You are not familiar how this works - every single NFL player is dealing with some sort of ailment at the end of the year. No one is calling him a hero (other than the most ridiculous fan), it's just what happens and the teams love saying this after the season when they lost to provide cover.
Except that I am. He was healthy prior to the injury. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47602037/bills-tyrell-shavers-played-torn-acl-2nd-half-vs-jaguars
DP. It was dumb for him to go out and play on the injury. And I said it at the time.
But when he is called "heroic" it's because he's part of a team. It is viewed as a sacrifice he made for his team, to give them a chance to win the game. Josh Allen apparently played on a broken foot and yes, that was deemed "heroic" because without him the Bills never would have had a chance. Also, teams often have limited options for replacing a player, especially mid-game -- the backup might be terrible. In some cases, the backup might also have an injury.
Downhill skiing is not a team sport. So the dynamics are different. Vonn didn't benefit her teammates by choosing to compete, and it could be seen as selfish because had she bowed out due to her injury, a healthy American skier would have had a chance to ski in the Olympics. It's really hard to see her choose to ski and then have this accident almost immediately -- it feels like a wasted opportunity for a younger skier who, even if they had not medaled at this Olympics, might have gotten important experience that could help with their future career. Whereas Vonn's career is all but over.
That’s not the way skiing works. They couldn’t have just swapped her out for a different American
Anonymous
02/09/2026 09:51
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:I give her credit for taking a risk.
+1
I hope it will bring her peace during her recovery
Anonymous
02/09/2026 09:44
Subject: Re:Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Putting the ACL aside, Lindsey clearly went out intending to win, and she tried to do it in the first 10 seconds by taking a tighter, more direct line than anyone else. In hindsight, it was a questionable tactical decision. We had already seen from several racers before her that you could be ahead of Breezy through the first half of the course, but those early splits weren’t translating into podium runs. The course set and conditions suggested that the race would be decided in the final third, where maintaining speed and line through the flatter, more technical sections mattered most.
By attacking so aggressively at the top, she effectively bet on gaining a decisive advantage early rather than building the run progressively. That approach increased risk without offering much strategic upside given how the course was skiing.
Unfortunately, the combination of bold tactics and her trademark willingness to push the limits, qualities that defined her entire career, didn’t align with what this race required.
Breezy herself took a much more conservative approach through the top third of the course and did not look on her way to a gold medal run at that point, but then had an extremely technically skillful remainder.
I thought it was interesting after Breezy's successful run, demonstrating this approach, that Vonn chose instead to try and attack the top of the course aggressively.
Jackie Wiles, the third American in the final, took a similar approach to Breezy and finished 4th, her best Olympic finish ever. Wiles also had the best time on the hill during her Friday training run. I also want to note that Wiles is not some kid -- she's 34 and this is her third Olympics.
This isn't a knock on Vonn's approach, she's obviously one of the best women's downhill skiers of all time and she's going to know better than me what she should do. But given the hill conditions and Breezy's success, I wonder what motivated Vonn to try and attack the top of the hill so aggressively? Was she worried that she wouldn't be able to ski as cleanly later in the course as Breezy and others were, due to her injury, so felt she needed to open up a lead early? Or was it a decision made independently of the current standings or how other skiers had skied, and based entirely on her own instincts based on her training run? Impossible to know, but just interesting to me that of the three American women, Vonn was the only one who chose to go after the top of the course the way she did, and the other two women had career best outcomes.
Anonymous
02/09/2026 07:27
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
I give her credit for taking a risk.
Anonymous
02/08/2026 19:55
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A lot of Vonn's sponsorship money is contingent on her racing. I don't think it's realistic to assume she made this decision without serious pressure from big name sponsors who had spent money making a bunch of ads heavily featuring Vonn and didn't want to have to run them during an olympics where she wasn't even competing.
Well watching her commercials all day today after her crash was not great. The commercials should’ve been pulled.
Wasn’t one of Vonn’s commercials in the lead-up to the Olympics comparing injuries in the line of duty with Scarlett Johansson?
Anonymous
02/08/2026 19:34
Subject: Re:Lindsey Vonn
Putting the ACL aside, Lindsey clearly went out intending to win, and she tried to do it in the first 10 seconds by taking a tighter, more direct line than anyone else. In hindsight, it was a questionable tactical decision. We had already seen from several racers before her that you could be ahead of Breezy through the first half of the course, but those early splits weren’t translating into podium runs. The course set and conditions suggested that the race would be decided in the final third, where maintaining speed and line through the flatter, more technical sections mattered most.
By attacking so aggressively at the top, she effectively bet on gaining a decisive advantage early rather than building the run progressively. That approach increased risk without offering much strategic upside given how the course was skiing.
Unfortunately, the combination of bold tactics and her trademark willingness to push the limits, qualities that defined her entire career, didn’t align with what this race required.
By attacking so aggressively at the top, she effectively bet on gaining a decisive advantage early rather than building the run progressively. That approach increased risk without offering much strategic upside given how the course was skiing.
Unfortunately, the combination of bold tactics and her trademark willingness to push the limits, qualities that defined her entire career, didn’t align with what this race required.
Anonymous
02/08/2026 19:07
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't it be nice if any part of the broadcasts had focused on Breezy?
Yes they barely mentioned Breezy at all, always panning to Vonn before her run. And all the ads are Vonn, which are now painful to watch. I hope she is ok.
Well part of that might be for uncomfortable reasons - had a drug testing whereabouts failure. There's no way NBC is going to prop up a slight underdog in a fairly niche sport with these allegations over her.
https://www.usada.org/sanction/breezy-johnson-accepts-whereabouts-sanction/
Omg this is old & has been address led publicly by breezy & also Mikaela (who agrees the drug testing is super restrictive)
Everyone should watch Michael Phelps Congressional testimony on Olympic drug testing then come on back here to talk about Breezy.
Anonymous
02/08/2026 18:23
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't it be nice if any part of the broadcasts had focused on Breezy?
Yes they barely mentioned Breezy at all, always panning to Vonn before her run. And all the ads are Vonn, which are now painful to watch. I hope she is ok.
Well part of that might be for uncomfortable reasons - had a drug testing whereabouts failure. There's no way NBC is going to prop up a slight underdog in a fairly niche sport with these allegations over her.
https://www.usada.org/sanction/breezy-johnson-accepts-whereabouts-sanction/
Omg this is old & has been address led publicly by breezy & also Mikaela (who agrees the drug testing is super restrictive)
It's an issue for every single Olympic athlete. I'm a huge T & F fan and wherabouts failures are a major red flag.
Anonymous
02/08/2026 18:07
Subject: Re:Lindsey Vonn
She took an incredibly aggressive line, probably based on how badly she wanted to win- she was willing to risk it all.
Anonymous
02/08/2026 18:03
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't it be nice if any part of the broadcasts had focused on Breezy?
Yes they barely mentioned Breezy at all, always panning to Vonn before her run. And all the ads are Vonn, which are now painful to watch. I hope she is ok.
Well part of that might be for uncomfortable reasons - had a drug testing whereabouts failure. There's no way NBC is going to prop up a slight underdog in a fairly niche sport with these allegations over her.
https://www.usada.org/sanction/breezy-johnson-accepts-whereabouts-sanction/
Omg this is old & has been address led publicly by breezy & also Mikaela (who agrees the drug testing is super restrictive)
Anonymous
02/08/2026 17:59
Subject: Lindsey Vonn
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Vonn is a certified moron. Wtf was she allowed to hog a spot on the team. 42 and on an artifical knee and a torn acl.
So stupid. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Her hubris got in the way of common sense.
Yeah, that never happened before. Veteran Olympian qualifying and being allowed to compete. Shocking.
THIS x100
Oh yes, she qualified alright.....probably qualified for disability after this accident.
Idiots like you are enablers that allows disasters like this to happen. She is so past her prime and has zero knees.
Played a stupid game and won the stupid prize. Americans get to enjoy watching her on TV screaming in agony. So cool she "qualified".
Most of the Olympic downhill skiers have zero knees left. Also her accident was unrelated to her knee. She hooked a gate with her shoulder.