actually can‘t believe i‘m doing this to myself but i‘m entering the discourse (can‘t contain myself because the takes on the whole lindsey situation out there are truly wild). alright so:
1) FUCKING NUANCE. you can actually admire what lindsey‘s achieved and admit that she‘s an insanely good skier without that having to mean that she‘s somehow above criticism.
2) no, i didn‘t wish this on her. no, i‘m not happy that she crashed like that. i truly wish it hadn‘t happened.
3) yes, i did call it in advance. before her comeback even. and that‘s the point. lindsey coming back was always her taking a huge risk. it‘s clear now that she could achieve great great things despite her partially artificial knee, and we also know that she‘s done extremely well in all her physical tests. still. she‘s been racing with an impairment and age doesn‘t just pass your body by. the risk got even higher when she decided to race with a torn ACL in her left knee. yes, that‘s possible to do and i‘m sure she‘s had a lot of trustworthy advisors to make the decision. but it‘s nevertheless a destabilizing factor - one more that she decided to race with.
4) lindsey already had an amazing career to look back on. she didn‘t need this. her coming back at this point was not only a huge risk to her own health and safety but it also took away a world cup starting position for a younger athlete, bound resources that the US ski team doesn‘t have an unlimited supply of. YES, it probably also did some good in terms of publicity and engagement. but i personally don‘t think the good outweighs the bad.
now for the sake of full disclosure i‘ll end with:
5) my personal bias: i will admit to having my personal issues with lindsey and those issues stem from her beviour and some of the statements she‘s made in the past. i am personally convinced that part of what moved her to make this comeback is that she‘s having a super hard time with the fact that mikaela has surpassed her in every conceivable way.
but that‘s neither here nor there and also NOT the reason i‘m so pissed about the way the olympic downhill went.
bottom line is this: ambition and talent are commendable, and both have certainly been driving factors of lindsey‘s (extremely deserved) success. however, it is also a mark of greatness to accurately assess risks. in my opinion, the risk lindsey took was way too high, and the fallout of her decision affected a lot of people through no fault of their own. and that‘s what i‘m criticizing.
now: fingers crossed for a full and speedy recovery.