Hey, there are folks.
It is Sunday, February eighth, and we are hopping on because the thing we feared, we dreaded, we hoped wouldn't happen at the Olympics has happened. That Lindsey Vaughn has gone down in a pretty devastating crash. Welcome to this episode episode of Amy and TJ and Robes Look Olympic Dreams. Will talk about in a second what she was trying to do and.
Why it's sad.
But this was a pretty serious, significant crash we just watched a short time ago.
Actually, yes, in fact, I woke up and you The first thing you said to me was, Babe, Lindsay vugh just crashed, And I said, how bad was it? And look, I know it's standard operating procedure to airlift them off the mountain, but when you see that happened just that visual it is serious, I mean. And unfortunately you can see the crash and know that it was but you could hear her after she crashed, and her pain was undeniable.
She was screaming yeah.
And even if you didn't have your audio up, there are images out there. The agony is on her face now let's tell you what we do.
Want to tell you this.
We're actually delayed in recording and reporting on this because we were trying to wait and get some kind of a significant update about how she's doing, which we still do not have. We don't know exactly how she's doing only at the USA team. USA is saying that she is being treated by the medical staff and that's to be expected, but nothing yet.
Yes, her family obviously was there on the mountain hoping for a much different outcome, but they did speak to reporters and said this, and this was reassuring that Lindsay has all her surgeons and her physical therapy staff here and her doctors, so they are all with her, her.
Team, and they know what they're dealing with.
They knew what she was up against, and so her family said that they are anxiously awaiting a report, but she is in the best hand she could be in.
When her sister was saying all of that, when she was listing so like, she has a whole squad of medical staff that travels with her. That is incredible and that is impressive, but it was also necessary robes given what she was trying to do. A reminder here she was in the finals today of the down hill, the finals of the downhill, which she has won a gold medal in previously. But this is a race that she
is doing nine days after she ruptured her ACL. That is an injury that takes folks six to nine months to come back from, and she was out there going at it now, Robes the reason, Look, this is always a possibility. This is some violent stuff and turns and movements and things they're doing to their body at seventy plus miles an hour. But Robes, we saw her several
days ago have very positive training runs. It was the first chance we all got to see her test out that ACL on her left knee, Robes, and she looked good.
I know. She actually in one of the training runs, I don't believe. I don't know if it was the second or the first one. She finished third and hit a I think a speed of seven ty eight miles per hour. So yes, she had two goes at it, and it looked like she was one hundred percent going to be in metal contention. And she wasn't giving her all obviously, because you hold a little bit back on your training runs.
And she was still doing well.
But that was part of the question.
She tested it, but did she fully give it everything she's going to give it in the race, And apparently something and maybe that was the case, maybe it was not, but Robes, it sure looked like and very early on in this race will explain here what happened.
But she was going well.
Was she thirteenth in the race, and yes, she was number thirteen, but she was getting ready for her run. Everyone had made it down thus far, meaning the skiers were handling the course fairly well. So she gets going, Robes and this is I haven't quite seen things like I've seen crashes before. But she thirteen seconds in and her crash or losing control happened while she was in the air.
Yes, and so that's what's so puzzling, because it wasn't like she was skiing and she was trying to take a turn and put too much weight on her injured leg and that's what caused the problem.
No, is she lost control in mid air.
And again, other folks, the commentators who know more about skiing than certainly we do. Certainly I do. You know more than I do, but I know even less than that. They are noticing or trying and say there was some kind of a buckle. It seemed like there was something unstable about that knee before she launched it.
Yes, that would make sense.
The way she launched off of the knee caused her to be unsteady or was not the power she was expecting, and that caused her to lose control. But the sad thing is this is a one point six mile race. I believe she crashed thirteen seconds in. I mean that was almost immediately. Look gets bad to crash at any point, but that just is tough. She was looking forward to this. Her trainer said, they woke up this morning. It's stunningly beautiful right now in Italy. It's perfect conditions, blue skies.
She said. They had music blasting.
They were feel she had good practice runs and then to have it all go down in thirteen seconds.
It's tough, you know. We she is that fair? Was she the story of the Olympics?
She yes, And a lot of people are already writing this that she was the biggest draw, like Michael Phelps type of situation where you've got Americans tuning in to watch Lindsay Vaughn's so for her to be out, it's obviously devastating to her, But it is actually fairly devastating to the stories into just the Olympics, at least that sport.
But isn't this exactly what the Olympics always gives us, these stories of incredible comebacks and victory and then the most painful heartbreak we will all ever have to witness, and we have to witness it live. It was a stretch Robes to think that she could meddle right, just her getting down the slope. Are you frickin kidding me? An ACL? You understand, for everybody understands what that means. This knocks pro athletes out. They lose a year of their career with this stuff. Yeah, nine days.
And you can tear your ACL, you can strain your ACL. She says, she ruptured gone her ACL. So that's a lot different than just having a strain or a pole. And she had to have a brace on while she was skiing, and look, she said that she had.
A bruised bone too. I believe.
I mean, that sounds so incredibly painful. I cannot imagine. And then to be able oof to hear her screaming when she crashed, it's just it.
It just makes your heart shrink.
And it crashed in such a way if you're watching it that you lose There was so much snow.
It was such a violent crash.
It was so much snow floating up around her that you lose sight of her almost in the snow as she's crashing. It is a devastating thing to watch. You add the whole story to it, Ropes. This was the comeback. This wasn't just all we love Lindley Vaughn, but you add to it Ropes. She just came out of retirement last year for the twenty four twenty five season and was good enough that everybody said, oh, oh, here she comes. She wants to do the Olympics again. Sure not, She's
on course. She makes the team. Everybody, she's forty one. Folks don't ski like this at forty one, correct, No, they do.
Not. Your body, Oh, I mean what it takes to do what she does at the speeds she does them. You need to be in the best shape of your life, and that typically happens when folks are in their teens in twenties.
She was crushing it when she was that age, but then robes. So just her making the comeback at forty one, and being at the Olympics was holy hell. She was the story of the Olympics before she ruptured the ACL nine days ago.
I know.
So you add that to it, you add to the fact that she's still out there pushing, she's still going. She's had two successful runs ropes. We were primed for one of the greatest stories in Olympic history, I know.
And this was and this was her event. As you pointed out, she was the gold medalist. And this is her course too, by the way, apparently I don't know. She loves this particular course and she felt confident because she knows it well. And a lot of a lot of the skiers say this is such a tough one. They don't prefer it. This was her run, and so that's what makes it even sadder. She had two more
events that she was going to hopefully participate in. Obviously one would assume that's all shot, she is done, and the her Olympic dreams are over.
Yeah, and look the knee. We'll hear about the knee. And shortly again we just saw her ski for the last time. Probably wow, So checking on the knee, but again, the rest of her quite frankly, I mean, she took them nasty fall.
She could be injured in some other way, we don't know.
And again we were trying to get word and we delayed hopping on because we wanted to see if we can give you that official word on her injuries.
We are that's it's a tough.
Grass and I don't know how.
I haven't gone back and watched it too closely, but there were some folks who have already written that it appeared she hit her head pretty badly. Now, this is why skiers need to wear helmets, because you go down and this is packed snow. It's like hitting your head on ice almost so Thankfully obviously she had a helmet on, but that was a little bit of a concern.
They said, her head hit pretty hard.
You know what I learned this. I don't know if it's new for the Olympics this time around, but robes they have a new safety feature. And the commentator explained it little air bags in their chest, in their torso that the things he said in zero point four to five millisec something like that, it inflates when it can tell that the skier is in a position they shouldn't be in, and can it like an airbag and a split second give you a cushion to protect your torso and a crash.
I had no idea I did.
I just heard about that this morning.
That is insane, incredible, and I'm surprised that they're able to do it aero dynamically because obviously speed is everything, and so you wouldn't want to have anything that lags you, Yes, but obviously if it protects you, it's a scary thing. And by the way, didn't two more women then crash after Lindsay. I believe that happens.
I saw the one at least, but were one and.
So unfortunately, and they don't think it was the conditions. But that kind of thing messes with your head you see someone else crash, it just it starts to make folks nervous, and so, yes, when Lindsay had gone, no one had crashed up until then after she went, two more skiers crash.
And it was some to your points where it was something that commentators mentioned several times, like after you see someone crash and then you have to go next, it could affect your mindset, but it also affect your score, like you're backing off a little bit. Even it's not just about another crash they done. They absolutely said, it gets in your head.
That makes so much sense. Look just the skiing that I've done. I'm not even kidding. When I see someone crash, I start to go, oh no, you don't cry. It gets in your head, and it's it's a strange thing. Now, obviously these are very well trained athletes, some of them professional, but it is a bit of a mind game.
At that point, you didn't want to say the other thing.
I wanted to say, the mind That's so funny.
You knew what I was thinking exactly.
I don't think I should drop the f bom right now. It's early, it's Sunday.
But folks, like we said, this was the biggest draw. Lindsay Vaughn is the biggest draw, the biggest story of the Olympics, and it was certainly obvious based on who was in the crowd when she was racing.
Today.
All right, well continue here on Amy and TJ on this Sunday, February eighth. As we were recording, we just watched the greatest American skier ever, Lindsay Vaughn, end her run at the Olympics and probably end her skiing career with a pretty devastating crash robes that she was trying to do what many thought impossible, certainly improbable, but just that she was out there trying on a ruptured acl to compete at the highest level.
Was it hats off to your system?
Yes, I mean she gave it her all and went on where a lot of people would say, I'm out, I'm done, There's no way I can operate in this kind of pain. And so yes, at forty one, she was trying to be the oldest Olympian or female Olympian to medal in downhill skiing, and so she could have would have. I mean, her training runs were suggesting she
was in contention and very well may have. So it's just such a sad, sad end you put it like this, that is the last time we will likely ever see Lindsey Vaughn ski competitively.
And that's just so sad.
Not so, but I mean, what a career. She's the greatest step.
She's given us decades of just glory and of wonder and amazement and how she attacks, of course, and she's known for that. What her sister said it some way, she only has one speed, She only knows how to go all out. She was out there doing this bravely, hats off till you please, anyone stop they're doing it already. They were second guessing and questioning whether or not she should even go out there, whether she should have a spot, whether this was possible. Let the girl be just okay,
they are criticizing her team. You was saying for letting her go for Oh, well come.
Yeah, I just look, I think it's incredible when someone wants to do something that's never been done before, and then to have to do it on a massive injury. That takes a lot of courage. And she was believing in herself in that moment. And yeah, she was hoping to become the oldest person to win an Olympic medal in alpine, so that it was man or woman. So yeah, she was doing something that no one had done before.
Can you imagine at that age with that injury, going eighty miles an hour down of course, where you don't have control the snow, The ice can absolutely impact. You see people crash all the time. So it's just that is such a man. I can't imagine skiing with that kind of fear, knowing I wasn't at my best.
It's the pressure on your body.
It seems like every your pinky toe needs to be in the best shape it's ever been to compete at this level and to think not just something an.
Injury or a bruise or strength.
She had something that devastating and went out there and put that strength. She knows what it takes to make those turns and to compete. She was willing to do it. Then I'll listen to her like yourself out. But today and again Rose, we saw her crash this morning. Well I saw it happen live.
Some crazy up earlyarly, but.
We saw that and then it it pulled at your heart a little bit because not long after the crash we see either the promos, like the regular promos that were scheduled to run.
Stay tuned. Lindsay von Rude On Lindsay.
Vonn was she's such a big part of the promotion of the Olympic Games.
Yes, she's a huge poll As we were talking about, she's one of the main reasons why people are tuning into these alpine events because they want to see Lindsay von Ski and see if she can push herself past a point that most people could not.
But you know what we did have. We did get the gold in the event.
After Lindsay Vaughn was airlifted out, her teammate Breezy Johnson won the race. She is now the first American since Lindsay Vonn in twenty ten to win that Olympic gold in the downhill race.
So it happens on this day that Lindsay crashes tough. It's tough, it's poetic, it's it's it's a handing off of the guard, it's it's a it's it's my god. What Lindsay Vaughn has given this country over the years has been pretty special. We are not the greatest skiing country in the world.
We're not.
Maybe the Swedes and the Norwegians they might have a few on us.
We name all the skiers, right, MICHAELA. Schiffriend you got body Miller, I remember just off the top of my head.
Yes, it's Lindsay von It's Linda.
She's our superstar, and she's our superstar and other superstars come to see her.
Look.
I know we see Snoop Dogg floating around all over the Olympics. But you know, it's a big event. If he shows up at it, and he was. He was sitting out there Nicole today in his.
Big white puffy jacket. Hilarious. I loved it. I want to I want to get that jacket.
Everything he wears at the Olympics should be online and be sold.
It's true they it would sell out immediately. He was rocking it with that. I don't know what it was, some white surple looking killing big every chuffy jacket.
I loved it every time.
But he was out there, but this crowd was massive, but sitting in those stands and everybody fell silent, and they kept showing the looks on people's faces.
And again this went for a long time.
This was thirty minutes, thirty minute delay, thirty minute delay.
Yes, if you go online and just they actually have photo galleries of all the shocked and sad faces in the crowd, people reacting and concerned for her safety in that moment too.
It was quite the crash.
Like you mentioned, snow everywhere, but there are just these stunning images of everyone, including snooped out dog's face when they saw Lindsay crash.
So we'll keep an eye on this today.
Not sure we have gotten no indication of when we might get an official update, but as now, as of this recording, as of this morning at least East coast time, we haven't gotten one yet, but just wanted to hop on and give that update. I know a lot of people. This is the one thing people were waiting on. Even if you didn't know when she was skating excuse me skiing, you knew it was coming up. Everybody wants this update,
so we thought it was important to hop on. So anything else as always tell yeah, top right corner Apple Podcasts app where you see our show page that button this has followed like that you can make sure you get your updates coming to you. As always, we appreciate you listening.
I'm t J. Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robot. Will talk to y'all soon