Snowfall causes delay of women’s combined event in Andorra

Things got scary at Saturday’s World Cup Super-G, when American skier Lindsey Vonn crashed hard and needed to be carted away on a rescue sled.

Lindsey Vonn defied injury to grab some valuable World Cup points in a super-combined at Soldeu, Andorra on Sunday (Feb 28).

This isn’t the first time that Vonn has suffered a devastating crash, as she has wiped out before and suffered injuries that have taken her out of action.

With just nine races scheduled this season, Vonn will be hoping for a swift recovery or she could be ruled out of contention with Alpine Combined in Soldeu tomorrow.

Winds and snowfall had also forced a three-hour delay of Saturday’s race, in which Vonn crashed after catching a spot of soft snow. She later said she had sustained a hairline fracture. “It was not the best conditions for the best racers… but I took advantage of my luck”.

“So the MRI shows a pretty substantial fracture in my tibial plateau”, wrote Vonn on Instagram. She leads the downhill, super-G and overall standings this year.

Vonn had been in a battle with Switzerland’s Lara Gut for the overall World Cup title and was 23 points clear at the start of the race. “It’s like insane, I can’t believe it”, the Italian said.

Brignone, who wore bob No. 8, timed 57.33 seconds on the shortened Aliga course to beat Vonn’s American teammate Laurenne Ross by 0.13 and Tamara Tippler of Austria by 0.37. Vonn posted on Facebook Sunday morning that she meant to ski, but had some doubts.

The super-G was the first ever speed event in Andorra, which hosted slalom and GS races before.

The combined event was won by Canada’s Marie-Michele Gagnon with Swiss Wendy Holdener second and Anne-Sophie Barthet of France third.

The women’s World Cup first travels to Jasna, Slovakia, for a GS and a slalom next weekend.