Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This swimmer was interesting - Ariarne Titmus. After success in two Olympics she said she'd had enough and it was time to try something else.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2025/oct/17/ariarne-titmus-swimmer-retires-at-the-top

I saw this too. Apparently she was burned out physically and emotionally. Janet Evans retired at 24.

Anonymous wrote:This swimmer was interesting - Ariarne Titmus. After success in two Olympics she said she'd had enough and it was time to try something else.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2025/oct/17/ariarne-titmus-swimmer-retires-at-the-top

Anonymous wrote:I wish she’d just shut up! No one is talking about Breezy who actually won the gold. She didn’t even mention her or the rest of the US team in her update. She’s an obnoxious narcissist who will never get enough attention to make her whole.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just the latest iteration of "Middle-aged woman, sit down!" and I can't even...

But also: Middle-aged woman, sit down. You're making things worse, hurting the U.S. team, and hurting the skier behind you on the roster. You earned your spot with an untorn ACL. And now you have a torn ACL, so be a mensch and withdraw.

I'm a middle aged woman who thinks it was unwise for Vonn to ski on her torn ACL. It's not even about giving someone else a shot or "being a mensch" for me. I just think it's dumb to destroy your body when you've already had amazing success in the sport and really don't have anything left to prove. It was like Tom Brady coming out of retirement to play for the Bucs. Dude, your time is done, you're old, why risk injury to do this again? And in Tom's case, he actually won another SB! I still think it was stupid.

There is something wrong with a lot of top athletes, mentally. I think especially in dangerous sports, they become addicted to the adrenaline and the glory, and they cannot adjust to retirement where they don't get those highs on a regular basis. I think they should take up meditation and see a therapist, not hit the gym and announce their un-retirement.

I also think it sends a terrible message to young athletes when people play through serious injuries. I always tell me kids: there is no glory worth risking your health. Kerri Strug vaulting on an injury? Louganis diving with a concussion? These are tragic stories that raise questions of coaching abuse and toxic training environments. Both of those athletes should have been told by coaches and teammates, "you and your safety are more important than winning an olympic medal." But we have a psycho "win at all costs" culture, so other people herald those incidents. I don't.

Meanwhile, people berate Simone Biles for dropping out of Olympic events when she did not feel she could safely perform her routines. Amanda Anisimova got widely criticized for stepping back from tennis when she had mental health issues. Yet both of those athletes came back better and more successful afterwards. I think those stories are far more admirable than a 40-something skier tearing her ACL 100% (her words) and then choosing to ski anyway, only to have a horrifying incident requiring multiple surgeries to fix. And Vonn was already a decorated athlete. It was for nothing but satisfying her own ego and, likely, her boredom and difficulty adjusting to life as a retired athlete. I don't see much to admire there and I wouldn't want my kids making the same choices. I'd want them to listen to the doctors, listen to their bodies, and make a choice of self-preservation and self-love, not sacrifice for no good reason.

I agree with everything you wrote, but I do wish people would stop using Louganis as an example--only because of the date of when that occurred. In 1988, concussions were treated SO differently than they are today. There was no real protocol for it, and even hospitals didn't take them very seriously. I very clearly remember even the news coverage focusing more on the stitches he received than anything else.

I'm really glad we've come a long way in understanding concussions and TBI. Thirty-five+ years makes a huge difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just the latest iteration of "Middle-aged woman, sit down!" and I can't even...

But also: Middle-aged woman, sit down. You're making things worse, hurting the U.S. team, and hurting the skier behind you on the roster. You earned your spot with an untorn ACL. And now you have a torn ACL, so be a mensch and withdraw.

I'm a middle aged woman who thinks it was unwise for Vonn to ski on her torn ACL. It's not even about giving someone else a shot or "being a mensch" for me. I just think it's dumb to destroy your body when you've already had amazing success in the sport and really don't have anything left to prove. It was like Tom Brady coming out of retirement to play for the Bucs. Dude, your time is done, you're old, why risk injury to do this again? And in Tom's case, he actually won another SB! I still think it was stupid.

There is something wrong with a lot of top athletes, mentally. I think especially in dangerous sports, they become addicted to the adrenaline and the glory, and they cannot adjust to retirement where they don't get those highs on a regular basis. I think they should take up meditation and see a therapist, not hit the gym and announce their un-retirement.

I also think it sends a terrible message to young athletes when people play through serious injuries. I always tell me kids: there is no glory worth risking your health. Kerri Strug vaulting on an injury? Louganis diving with a concussion? These are tragic stories that raise questions of coaching abuse and toxic training environments. Both of those athletes should have been told by coaches and teammates, "you and your safety are more important than winning an olympic medal." But we have a psycho "win at all costs" culture, so other people herald those incidents. I don't.

Meanwhile, people berate Simone Biles for dropping out of Olympic events when she did not feel she could safely perform her routines. Amanda Anisimova got widely criticized for stepping back from tennis when she had mental health issues. Yet both of those athletes came back better and more successful afterwards. I think those stories are far more admirable than a 40-something skier tearing her ACL 100% (her words) and then choosing to ski anyway, only to have a horrifying incident requiring multiple surgeries to fix. And Vonn was already a decorated athlete. It was for nothing but satisfying her own ego and, likely, her boredom and difficulty adjusting to life as a retired athlete. I don't see much to admire there and I wouldn't want my kids making the same choices. I'd want them to listen to the doctors, listen to their bodies, and make a choice of self-preservation and self-love, not sacrifice for no good reason.

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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.

Mollin had the chance. She…didn’t make the cut.

Right, Vonn is obviously the better skier. Unless... she tears her ACL nine days before the event and her participation becomes a big gamble. She earned the right to take that gamble if she so chooses, but that's not going to stop people from second guessing whether it was the right choice, especially when the result was that she was airlifted off the course.

Would Mollin have medaled in this event? No. She's not fast enough. Yet. But it would have been terrific experience for a very promising and up and coming skier. This was Vonn's fifth Olympic Games, after coming out of retirement to do it, and in retrospect I think it would have been better for Vonn and for US skiing if she'd withdrawn after her ACL tear. The OP is right that this was a big opportunity for a young skier that Vonn took away for her swan song. Had Vonn been healthy, I don't think anyone would have argued with that. She wasn't. I think she should have withdrawn.

No one “took anything away” from anyone. Want a spot on the Olympic team? Earn. It.

Vonn won her spot, and despite a significant injury, she chose to give it her all and take the opportunity. The opportunity SHE EARNED. It is not Vonn’s job to give another athlete a chance to develop experience, blah blah blah. That’s Mollin’s job, and Mollin’s coach’s job, etc.

Stop with the “took away for her swan song.” Vonn EARNED her spot and she chose to use the opportunity. It didn’t go her way. Unfortunately. But the only person she hurt and disappointed was herself. Want a spot on the Olympic team? EARN IT.

Many people, including me, believe that veteran athletes have an obligation to nurture the next generation of athletes. That is obviously not your view, which is fine, but you don't seem to understand that these are OPINIONS (look, I have a caps lock key too!) not facts. My opinion is different from your opinion. That's all. Both of our opinions are valid.

Vonn earned her spot, and then she got hurt. She wasn't the same skier she was prior to destroying her ACL in Crans-Montana.

I think a lot of people defending Vonn's choice here would be singing a different tune if we were talking about a different skier, someone less famous or decorated, making the exact same choice. A lot of this is just "Vonn is one of my favorite athletes, she can do whatever she wants." People wanted to see her race. That's fine, I wanted to see her race too, but not like this. Sorry but I think it was the wrong choice.

And I think you would be singing a different tune if chance had gone the other way, and she had a good run (she had good training runs). We get it: Vonn is bad. Here’s all the injured Winter Olympians who are good:

Petra Majdic (Cross-Country Skiing, 2010): Fell into a gully during warmups, suffering five broken ribs and a punctured lung. She competed through intense pain, won a bronze medal, and was immediately hospitalized.
Sofia Goggia (Alpine Skiing, 2022): Won downhill silver less than a month after sustaining a partially torn ACL, minor fracture, and tendon damage.
Ollie Martin (Snowboarding, 2026): Finished fourth in the men's big air final while competing with a broken arm sustained in training.
Carlo Janka (Alpine Skiing, 2018): Competed in the Winter Olympics only two months after tearing his ACL.
Philippe Marquis (Mogul Skiing, 2018): Competed at the Pyeongchang Olympics just one month after an ACL tear.
Philippe Marquis (Mogul Skiing, 2018) 28

Greg Louganis had a concussion but yay because he got gold, he’s a hero. See also Kerri Strug.

“Pros Play Hurt” and if it works out, you’re a hero. If it doesn’t, and you take the spot YOU EARNED, you’re a thief…if you fail.

Her injury was more severe and only a week prior. More risky.

Anonymous wrote:This is just the latest iteration of "Middle-aged woman, sit down!" and I can't even...

But also: Middle-aged woman, sit down. You're making things worse, hurting the U.S. team, and hurting the skier behind you on the roster. You earned your spot with an untorn ACL. And now you have a torn ACL, so be a mensch and withdraw.

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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.

Mollin had the chance. She…didn’t make the cut.

Right, Vonn is obviously the better skier. Unless... she tears her ACL nine days before the event and her participation becomes a big gamble. She earned the right to take that gamble if she so chooses, but that's not going to stop people from second guessing whether it was the right choice, especially when the result was that she was airlifted off the course.

Would Mollin have medaled in this event? No. She's not fast enough. Yet. But it would have been terrific experience for a very promising and up and coming skier. This was Vonn's fifth Olympic Games, after coming out of retirement to do it, and in retrospect I think it would have been better for Vonn and for US skiing if she'd withdrawn after her ACL tear. The OP is right that this was a big opportunity for a young skier that Vonn took away for her swan song. Had Vonn been healthy, I don't think anyone would have argued with that. She wasn't. I think she should have withdrawn.

No one “took anything away” from anyone. Want a spot on the Olympic team? Earn. It.

Vonn won her spot, and despite a significant injury, she chose to give it her all and take the opportunity. The opportunity SHE EARNED. It is not Vonn’s job to give another athlete a chance to develop experience, blah blah blah. That’s Mollin’s job, and Mollin’s coach’s job, etc.

Stop with the “took away for her swan song.” Vonn EARNED her spot and she chose to use the opportunity. It didn’t go her way. Unfortunately. But the only person she hurt and disappointed was herself. Want a spot on the Olympic team? EARN IT.

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Mollin had the chance. She…didn’t make the cut.

Right, Vonn is obviously the better skier. Unless... she tears her ACL nine days before the event and her participation becomes a big gamble. She earned the right to take that gamble if she so chooses, but that's not going to stop people from second guessing whether it was the right choice, especially when the result was that she was airlifted off the course.

Would Mollin have medaled in this event? No. She's not fast enough. Yet. But it would have been terrific experience for a very promising and up and coming skier. This was Vonn's fifth Olympic Games, after coming out of retirement to do it, and in retrospect I think it would have been better for Vonn and for US skiing if she'd withdrawn after her ACL tear. The OP is right that this was a big opportunity for a young skier that Vonn took away for her swan song. Had Vonn been healthy, I don't think anyone would have argued with that. She wasn't. I think she should have withdrawn.

No one “took anything away” from anyone. Want a spot on the Olympic team? Earn. It.

Vonn won her spot, and despite a significant injury, she chose to give it her all and take the opportunity. The opportunity SHE EARNED. It is not Vonn’s job to give another athlete a chance to develop experience, blah blah blah. That’s Mollin’s job, and Mollin’s coach’s job, etc.

Stop with the “took away for her swan song.” Vonn EARNED her spot and she chose to use the opportunity. It didn’t go her way. Unfortunately. But the only person she hurt and disappointed was herself. Want a spot on the Olympic team? EARN IT.

Many people, including me, believe that veteran athletes have an obligation to nurture the next generation of athletes. That is obviously not your view, which is fine, but you don't seem to understand that these are OPINIONS (look, I have a caps lock key too!) not facts. My opinion is different from your opinion. That's all. Both of our opinions are valid.

Vonn earned her spot, and then she got hurt. She wasn't the same skier she was prior to destroying her ACL in Crans-Montana.

I think a lot of people defending Vonn's choice here would be singing a different tune if we were talking about a different skier, someone less famous or decorated, making the exact same choice. A lot of this is just "Vonn is one of my favorite athletes, she can do whatever she wants." People wanted to see her race. That's fine, I wanted to see her race too, but not like this. Sorry but I think it was the wrong choice.

And I think you would be singing a different tune if chance had gone the other way, and she had a good run (she had good training runs). We get it: Vonn is bad. Here’s all the injured Winter Olympians who are good:

Petra Majdic (Cross-Country Skiing, 2010): Fell into a gully during warmups, suffering five broken ribs and a punctured lung. She competed through intense pain, won a bronze medal, and was immediately hospitalized.
Sofia Goggia (Alpine Skiing, 2022): Won downhill silver less than a month after sustaining a partially torn ACL, minor fracture, and tendon damage.
Ollie Martin (Snowboarding, 2026): Finished fourth in the men's big air final while competing with a broken arm sustained in training.
Carlo Janka (Alpine Skiing, 2018): Competed in the Winter Olympics only two months after tearing his ACL.
Philippe Marquis (Mogul Skiing, 2018): Competed at the Pyeongchang Olympics just one month after an ACL tear.

Greg Louganis had a concussion but yay because he got gold, he’s a hero. See also Kerri Strug.

“Pros Play Hurt” and if it works out, you’re a hero. If it doesn’t, and you take the spot YOU EARNED, you’re a thief…if you fail.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I hope she's okay. I haven't seen an update on her condition after this latest crash.

Swiss TV reported lower leg fracture

I hope her spine, neck and head are okay. A leg will heal.

I've had multiple orthopedic spine surgeries from an accident not even remotely as bad as her fall. Greed and hubris are a bad combination.

She has the drive of an Olympic champion. Greed and hubris were part of what led her to set the record for the most female World Cup downhill titles (8) and super-G titles (5). Lindsey is Lindsey. You are you.