Head Strong
Lindsey Vonn’s decision to compete in the World Championships after suffering a concussion throws her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. BY ERIC WILLIAMS
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN,
— Everybody’s an expert.
But when it comes to what is going on between
your ears, who should have the final say?
Lindsey Vonn and her decision to compete in the
World Championships while experiencing symp-
toms of a concussion came under intense scru-
tiny here in Garmisch and beyond.
It all began on Feb. 2, when Vonn smacked her
head while training ahead of World Cup tech rac-
es in Zwiesel, Germany. She posted a video of
the tumble on her Facebook page that night after
receiving a CT scan at a local hospital. “I had a
pretty scary crash today training GS in Hintereit
[sic], Austria,” wrote Vonn. “I hit my head pretty
hard and had to go to the hospital to get a CT
scan. Luckily the scan showed no major injuries!
I will be very sore tomorrow but should be fine in
a few days. I will have to see how I feel and play
it by ear for the upcoming races.”
Immediately, the Facebook comments piled up
and expert opinions both solicited and not began
formulating in Europe and the U.S. It was exact-
ly a year ago that people were also speculating
how Vonn’s Olympic Games could be saved af-
ter sustaining a shin injury. As the news broke
in Vancouver, U.S. Ski Team email boxes were
filled with hundreds of ideas from everyone, soc-
cer moms to engineers, on how to cure the ail-
ing Olympian on whom the nation’s golden hopes
hung.
This time no home remedies or high-tech gad-
getry would help.
GERMANY
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
