Lindsey Vonn not emotionally ready to decide about racing again - ESPN

NEW YORK — Lindsey Vonn is still recovering physically and emotionally from her frightening crash at the Winter Olympics. For now, the tough decisions about the future can wait.

She has undergone eight surgeries after suffering a complex left leg fracture — one that nearly led to a leg amputation — in the women's downhill skiing race on Feb. 8. She needs at least one more to repair a torn ACL in that same knee.

So if Vonn, 41, races again — and she's not ready to make that decision — a return is at least a year and a half away, she told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

«I just don't want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do,» Vonn said. «I may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I'm not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.»

A return to retirement was an option after a comeback season Vonn thinks she would have returned to retirement had she been able to complete a comeback season that rivaled one of the best of her career. She ended a six-year absence from the sport largely to race at Cortina, Italy, one of her favorite courses, and the venue for the Milan Cortina Games.

The winner of three Olympic medals, including a downhill gold in 2010, crashed just 13 seconds into the race and suffered a complex tibia fracture, shocking a star-studded crowd and ending a season in which she led the World Cup downhill standings and hadn't finished worse than fourth in any race.

She's returned from an assortment of injuries before — she has a titanium implant in her right knee — but this one was different. The pain was different. The eight surgeries are just one shy of the total she had for all the others combined.

«It's a much