Story highlights
- How Lindsey Vonn is bidding to return from a potentially career threatening injury
- American's Red Bull team insists it's as much a mental as it is physical battle to return
- British skier Chemmy Alcott relives recovering from three leg breaks in her career
- Extreme sports psychologist on the mentality of recovering from such high-speed falls
It was the very first race of this year's World Championships and Lindsey Vonn was confident of wresting back her Super-G title. Just five seconds in, the story went off script, and Vonn off course.
On the Schladming slopes on an arctic Austrian February afternoon, the American downhill Olympic champion's first jump on the course initially appeared to go to plan but, as she landed, her weight seemed to shift too far forward and her right knee buckled virtually to a right angle beneath her.
She skidded off the track and came to a rest 100 meters down the mountain, in a crumpled wreck in the snow, clutching her knee, her face twisted in agony before the rescue helicopter winched her up over the snow-dusted pine trees below, taking her to begin the slow and agonizing recovery process.
She has been open in that recovery process, tweeting pictures of the horrific state of her blackened and swollen knee in the aftermath of her operation, keeping her followers posted on the slow and steady nature of her recovery.
Less than seven months later in September, Vonn clipped back into her skis on the slopes of Portillo, Chile, to test the reconstructed knee, insisting "I can't tell which knee is injured" and that she was "skiing without fear."
Vonn reflects on an 'amazing' year 03:59
Lindsey Vonn vows to take on the men 03:25
Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn suffered from a "complex knee injury" and was airlifted to a hospital after a crash during the super-G at the Alpine Ski World Championships in Austria on Tuesday. She will be out for the remainder of the season. Vonn, 28, won the downhill gold in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and is a four-time overall Alpine Ski World Cup champion. Here's a look at her rise to a household name for winter sports fans.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn is lifted by a helicopter during the women's super-G event during the Alpine FIS Ski World Championships on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, in Schladming, Austria.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn skis before crashing while competing on February 5.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn is airlifted on February 5.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn is airlifted on February 5.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Lindsey Kildow, who became Vonn by marriage, of the USA Ski team poses for a portrait in 2001.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Kildow rides the lift with Maria Riesch of Germany during training for the FIS Alpine Skiing Women's World Cup Race on December 8, 2005, in Aspen, Colorado.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Kildow poses with her trophy, a cow, in Val d'Isere, France, after winning her second World Cup in the women's downhill event on December 17, 2005.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Kildow catches air during the women's downhill World Cup in Val d'Isere, France, on December 20, 2006.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn gets ready to start her FIS Ski World Cup women's downhill training in Aspen, Colorado, on December 5, 2007.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn cruises down the mountain during the slalom event in the women's super combined at the FIS alpine skiing world cup on March 9, 2008, in Crans-Montana.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn competes in the women's slalom first run on March 13, 2009, at the Ski World Cup finals in Are, Spain.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn celebrates with her gold medal during the medal ceremony for the alpine skiing ladies downhill in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 17, 2010 in Whistler, Canada.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn accepts the award for Best Female Athlete onstage at The 2011 ESPY Awards on July 13, 2011, in Los Angeles.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn takes first place during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup for women's giant slalom on October 22, 2011, in Soelden, Austria.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn starts in the FIS World Cup women's downhill training on January 13, 2012, in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn makes a jump during the FIS World Cup women's downhill in Tarvisio on March 5, 2011. Vonn won the downhill World Cup title for the fourth year in a row.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's downhill training on February 3, 2012, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn shows her first-place trophy during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup for the women's super-G on February 26, 2012, in Bansko, Bulgaria.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn arrives at the 2012 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on July 11, 2012, in Los Angeles.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – Vonn sprays powder during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's downhill on January 19, 2013, in Cortina D'ampezzo, Italy. She took first place.
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Photos: Photos: Ski champion Lindsey Vonn
Ski champion Lindsey Vonn – From left, Tina Maze of Slovenia who came in second, Vonn who took first, and Anna Fenninger of Austria who took third celebrate after the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup for women's giant slalom on January 26, 2013, in Maribor, Slovenia.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Poster girl – Lindsey Vonn is a marketeer's dream, with her skiing prowess and profile taking the sport to new corners of North America.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Skiing starlet – Vonn burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old and represented the U.S. team on home soil at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 as a 17-year-old.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Big heart – Skiing is a treacherous sport, demonstrated by this fall Vonn had at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin. She was airlifted to hospital but returned two days later to compete and finished eighth. Her grit earned her the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Sporting spouse – Vonn married fellow U.S. skier Thomas Vonn in 2007. Vonn also became her coach. The pair split in November 2011.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
First of four – Vonn secured her first World Cup title in 2008. She set a new record for the most World Cup downhill victories in a season with 10. Vonn would go on to win it again two years in a row and now has four to her name.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Under the thumb – Another serious injury, this time to her thumb, ruled Vonn out of the World Ski Championships in Val d'Isere back in February 2009.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Gold plated – Vonn's only Olympic gold medal to date came in the downhill competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. "Seeing my name and the number one next to it was the best feeling I've had in my life," she told reporters.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Lake Lindsey – Lake Louise is Vonn's playground. She has dominated there in recent years, winning all three downhill events in December 2012, like she did the year before. Her request to race against the men there this year was rejected.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
Best buddies – Vonn missed out on a fourth successive World Cup title to her good friend Maria Riesch by three points in 2011.
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Photos: Vonn and on: Lindsey's quest
In conversation – Vonn took time out of her preparations for an Alpine World Cup event in Val d'Isere to catch up with CNN's Alpine Edge show.
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Her plan is now to return to competitive skiing at the World Cup meeting in Beaver Creek, Colorado, from 29 November to 1 December.
The U.S. Ski Team, their physician Dr Bill Sterett, who performed surgery on Conn, and Athletes Special Projects at Red Bull, headed by Robert Trenwalder, have been at the heart of her recovery program.
The comeback goal has been all about the Olympics in Sochi in February 2014, one year after the injury.
"Lindsey is a fighter and having her goal always in mind, she did everything needed for her comeback," Trenkwalder told CNN. "She has mastered it outstandingly and she always knew that she couldn't do too much too early.
"But such a tremendous injury requires a very specific and well-co-ordinated rehab program. The U.S. Ski Team, Dr Bill Sterett and we at Red Bull did everything possible to create an ideal rehab environment for Lindsey."
Early in that recovery process, Red Bull published a picture of Vonn, her knee heavily strapped on a medical bed doing exercises with the caption "not letting obstacles stand in her way."
Her program involved a strict calendar of rehab measurements and physical training but the physical side of things was only half of the battle.
Returning to the slopes after crashing at high speed and with a potentially career-threatening injury can take some overcoming.
"The physical rebuild is absolutely essentially but it has to go in coordination with the rehab program," continued Trenkwalder. "For sure there is a mental aspect too, returning to the slopes can be a challenge.
"But when I saw Lindsey giving her comeback on skis in Chile, it was totally obvious that everything is totally fine. Skiing is her element and she was all smiles to be finally back on skis."
For all the positive noises from Vonn's camp, however, there is still a sense -- to a certain degree -- that she is skiing into the unknown in the ensuing weeks.
"We are on target and everything looks good now," added Trenkwalder. "However, I cannot read the future and returning to the peak depends on loads of different aspects."
For the superstar of world skiing, it is her first career-threatening injury. So just how does skier recover from those physical and mental wounds?
Perhaps there is no better person to ask than British skier Chemmy Alcott, who is in the midst of rehab from breaking her leg for the third time.
The first and most serious break dates back to December 2010 during a practice run at Lake Louise in Canada. It was a jump she had tackled 60 times, 59 of them correctly but this time things went awry... at 80mph.
On this occasion, she ended up with a multitude of fractured bones in her leg, she was strapped to a stretcher and attached to a helicopter.
The breaks were so severe that her ski boot liner became lodged inside her leg, the removed boot showing smashed bones and a torrent of blood as it was removed.
It was an injury that kept her out of competitive action for two years but amazingly she remained conscious throughout.
"Well, for one, I don't remember the crash," said Alcott, who similarly has opted not to watch it back. "I think that was my body's defense mechanism, to shut it out.
"I'm a very optimistic person and I don't need to see something that could be negative. There's nothing to be gained from reliving it."
Remarkably Alcott opted to make her return at Lake Louise of all places, which had nearly seen the end of her career, finishing an impressive 25th in the downhill against the world's best skiers.
She describes that run as "the gutsiest performance of her life."
Clearly the mental demons were in abundance, perhaps typified by the fact that rather than her customary 10 minutes preparing at the start gate, she opted to spend just half-a-minute there.
Come the run itself, though, she explained: "I really put my brain out the window. I came out of the gate with a sense of peace and satisfaction having made it back."
Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Pride of Jamaica – Michael Williams is striving to take part in the 2014 Winter Olympics for Jamaica. The 42-year-old has until January 2014 to achieve the required points to get in.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Man on a mission – Williams caught up with CNN's Alpine Edge show to explain how he had been inspired to try skiing for the first time after watching the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
'Jamaica, we have a bobsled team' – Williams first became interested in snow sports after watching Jamaica's bobsleigh team compete at the 1988 Games. The quartet became one of the stories of the competition after swapping their tropical Caribbean island for the slopes of Canada.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
The underdogs – Frederick Powell (L) did the team's PR duties as they became huge stars at the 1988 Games while Michael White (C) and Allen Caswell (R) were joined by Dudley and Chris Stokes for the four-man competition that captivated the world.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Canadian-born – Williams was born and raised in Canada but qualified for Jamaica thanks to his mother and grandmother being from the West Indian island.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Snow joke – Williams (C) experienced plenty of snow growing up in Canada, but it wasn't until he saw the 1988 Winter Games that his interest in snow sports was piqued.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
College football – Before launching himself into the world of snow sports, Williams had a spell as a professional footballer.
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
The Snow Leopard – It was the performance of Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, known as "The Snow Leopard," that convinced Williams to pursue his dream. In 2010 he was the first Ghanaian to compete at the Winter Games in 2010, and Williams said: "If this guy can do it, I can do it."
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Photos: Dream Chaser intent on Cool Runnings
Jump for Jamaica – Jamaica do have some pedigree in snow sports -- Errol Kerr competed at Vancouver in 2010 in the skicross event, finishing ninth. It is the highest placing of any Caribbean athlete in Winter Olympics' history.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Noise in sport – Watch any ski race on TV and you will hear the same dull, persistent background clanging of cowbells ringing. Marcel Hirscher's feet are pictured here next to a cowbell during the podium ceremony of the men's slalom race at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in January 2012.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Must have accessory – Over the last two decades cowbells, already steeped in Alpine history, have become a global success and Winter Olympic icon.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Until the cows come home – Bells have been used, especially in downhill skiing, for a long time. It started in Switzerland, where in summer the cows all walk around the mountains with bells on.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
European culture – "If the Swiss are coming to an event they'll bring really big bells, a foot high or more," said California-based cowbell importer Elisabeth Halvorson.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Steady march of the cowbell – Cycling and triathlon are increasingly the domain of the cowbell. Tennis racket manufacturers gave away branded versions at the U.S. Open. Here a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays is pictured holds up a cow bell during game one of the 2008 MLB World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Viva Vuvezela? – Go to most major sporting events in 2013 and the ambience will be provided by vast, booming speaker systems. The sound of the vuvezela at the World Cup in 2010 offered a very different soundscape.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Shake, rattle and roll – Back in 1949, football fans in England came to matches armed with very different instruments of noise -- wooden rattles.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Cowbell production – When a Winter Olympics is within sight, cowbells become Norwegian cowbell manufacturer Moen's hottest commodity. The company produces approximately 30,000 bells each year, but in an Olympic Year over twice as many cowbells would be churned out.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Fabric of sport – The ting-a-ling sensation of a cowbell feels warm and traditional -- part of the very fabric of sport.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
The spirit of the Olympics – "For us, it started before the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994," said Moen Grude, chief executive of the Norwegian company. "The fans saw it as the only souvenir that let them take the spirit of the Olympics back home."
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Cowbell trophy – Cowbells have many different uses and are not just for skiing fans. Here American sprinter Carl Lewis of the USA is presented in 1997 with a huge cow-bell by promoter Andreas Brugger at the IAAF Weltklasse Grand Prix at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, Switzerland.
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Photos: Noise and sport: how the cowbell came of age
Old school cowbell – An Alpiner with three large cow bells, which produce that sombre rhythmic sound, at a traditional bell-swinging festival in 1955.
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Jamaican skier's Olympic dream 04:12
Hirscher: 'Exciting' to win World Cup 04:19
She did not on that occasion nor during her latest break see a sports psychologist. "If I felt I had a weakness, I'd see someone about it," she said.
Instead, she talked it through with other skiers who have endured similar experiences before adding, "I think I'm mentally strong enough. With that Lake Louise run, I've proved how tough I can be.
"I didn't let anything in from the past, I wasn't scared, I was just excited to be back. I just don't think of 'what ifs' I just get on with things.
"For me, my only thought is Sochi. I've worked so hard for it. It's got to be."
"Sochi doubt?" she added, somewhat flabbergasted, in answer to the question of whether she would OK for the Winter Olympics. "It's just not there, I can't let it creep in. It's my Hollywood ending."
There is something even more Hollywood about Vonn, with her higher profile and her on-going relationship with the world's most famous golfer Tiger Woods. Both skiers, though, have very similar goals, to make it to Sochi.
But what is it about skiers that enable them to overcome such mental battles. Is it genetic?
Dr Rhonda Cohen manages the London Sport Institute at Middlesex University and is a chartered sport and exercise psychologist whose research centers on personality, motivation, risk and reaction times especially in examining the psychology of extreme sport.
"We are all born with a genetic pattern and obviously a genetic predisposition towards certain behavior," says Cohen.
"When you are born with more of an anxiety trait your natural reaction would be to get anxious in a stressful situation such as a broken leg.
"However, both Lindsey and Chemmy have developed excellent coping mechanisms, pushing aside thoughts of perhaps not ever being able to be the best in your sport."
But even extreme sports starts come to a point after an injury where they think enough is enough.
As Cohen pointed out: "Some skiers do give up. I have often found the length of their career as part of an odds game -- the longer they compete or engage in the sport, the greater the chance of something serious happening."
That happened in the case of Austrian skier Hans Grugger, a World Cup winner who suffered a serious head injury in a fall in 2011.
At the age of 30, Grugger made a full recovery from those head injuries but any hopes of a return to the slopes -- at least competitively -- were curtailed by nerve damage to his right leg.
He had suffered two serious falls before, much like Alcott and Vonn, and on both occasions opted to return.
"To me, that was not a problem, crashing is a part of skiing, and crashing never gave me fear for the next time," he explained. "But this accident was different. I couldn't come back."
His comments suggest he would still be competing if given the chance but Grugger is not so sure. "I don't know as I just feel happy to have my life," he adds.
"I was told if my head injury was one centimeter to the right or left, things could have been very different."
Perhaps fortunately the mental demons of the crash do not haunt him -- he has no memory from six weeks beforehand to about six weeks afterwards.
However, before returning to the slopes in a more amateur fashion, he opted to watch back his horror fall. "It was just me and my laptop," he recalls.
"It took me a time to press play -- my finger was hovering over play for a long time. But when I watched it, it was OK. It was just like watching someone else. So when I did first ski, I was not scared."
Unlike Grugger, in retirement from the age of 30, Vonn, who turns 29 on Friday, and 31-year-old Alcott have opted to return.
Despite their crashes, they show no signs of slowing down or hanging up their skis.
