[When Lindsey Vonn last raced on the World Cup circuit nearly six years ago, the constant pain in her knee left her in tears and led to retirement. Flash forward to Vonn’s comeback race on a titanium knee at age 40 last weekend, and the American skiing standout couldn’t have felt more different. No more pain, no more swelling, no more tears.
Vonn had a robot-assisted knee replacement surgery in April, a first of its kind in World Cup skiing. The procedure involved cutting off part of the bone in her right knee and replacing it with two titanium pieces. She was planning her comeback just a month later.
Vonn said she has talked to many skiers already about the procedure and believes it could be something to consider for athletes with knee problems. “I feel amazing. I mean, obviously not everyone responds the same way to surgeries. For some reason, I bounce back pretty well from surgery,” she said.
Italian Winter Sports Federation’s head physician and orthopedist Dr. Andrea Panzeri, who has operated on Vonn’s friend and fellow downhiller Sofia Goggia, said knee replacements are usually performed on patients over 50. “This is definitely the first time in World Cup history that such a young athlete has raced with one,” he said. “And I’m not aware of any other elite-level athletes in other sports competing with one, either.”
Vonn’s operation has sparked discussion on the potential for other elite-level athletes to consider knee replacements. Dr. Elan Goldwaser, a sports medicine physician at Columbia University Medical Center, believes that if it’s necessary, it’s a good procedure to do. Chris Knight, Vonn’s personal coach, agrees, saying that the results she’s had have been “unbelievable” with no pain and no swelling.
However, there are also doubters, such as four-time overall World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen, who warned that Vonn could tear her artificial knee apart. But Vonn’s doctor, Dr. Andrea Panzeri, assured that the titanium doesn’t rupture, calling it “a small prosthetic that doesn’t break.” Vonn will next race in St. Anton, Austria, on January 11-12.
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