Lindsey Vonn training hard, plans to compete for a medal in Sunday’s downhill race

The GIST: Thought gilded American skier Lindsey Vonn’s comeback was over when she ruptured her ACL last week? Think again. With just two days until Vonn plans to compete for a fourth career Olympic medal, let’s explain the stunning feat she has on deck. Olympians, they’re not like us.

🤔 How can she ski on that injury?: When you hear “ACL injury,” your mind might jump to athletes like college basketball star JuJu Watkins or Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who are sidelined for nine to 12 months.

• The ACL’s main job is to provide stability in the knee, and for that reason, any normal person should not ski on such an injury. But, as explained in this Yahoo Sports article, Vonn isn’t a normal person; she’s an Olympian.

• With decades of training behind her, it’s possible that Vonn has enough strength in her surrounding leg muscles, namely her quads and hips, to compensate for one unstable knee during Sunday’s race. That’s why she’s still training like a beast, knee brace and all.

⏰ It all goes down Sunday at 5:30 a.m. ET: Boasting an ironclad reputation as one of the greatest skiers of all time, 41-year-old Vonn has nothing left to prove — or if you ask her, she has nothing to lose. A medal favorite before the injury, now Vonn’s ready for one more attempt at 90 seconds of glory. Simply legendary.