Alpine skiing-Vonn more in the spotlight than ever

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 3 : Lindsey Vonn will be in the spotlight more than ever as the injured U.S. Alpine ski great attempts the seemingly impossible on the speed slopes at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

Teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup skier of all time, will be centre stage later on but the immediate attention will be on 41-year-old Vonn and whether she can overcome a serious knee injury.

The American has climbed mountains already, launching an improbable comeback in 2024 after six years out and soaring to astonishing success this season.

Now, with the world watching and on the biggest stage of all, the 2010 downhill champion will try to take her battered body down Cortina d'Ampezzo's gleaming Olimpia delle Tofane piste.

On Tuesday Vonn revealed she had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that might be considered season or even career-ending, in a crash in Crans-Montana last Friday - the final downhill before the Games. 

"I know what my chances were before the crash, and I know my chances aren't the same as it stands today, but I know there's still a chance. And as long as there's a chance, I will try," she said.

Until then it had looked like Vonn would have a ready throne in a swish resort known as the "Queen of the Dolomites".

A standout star on and off the slopes, taking the sport to audiences far beyond the snowline, Vonn has delivered two wins, a second place and two thirds in five completed downhills this season.

No other speed skier comes close for consistency and Cortina is a piste where she has enjoyed record success and had hoped to become Alpine skiing's oldest Olympic medallist.

Emma Aicher and Austria's Cornelia Hutter have been two of her biggest rivals, with the former