Lindsey Vonn hospitalized with apparent knee injury at crash in super-G at world champs

SCHLADMING, Austria – Lindsey Vonn was taken to a hospital by helicopter Tuesday after crashing and apparently hurting her right knee in the super-G race at the world ski championships.

Vonn, a four-time overall World Cup champion, lost balance on her right leg while landing after a jump. Her ski came off immediately, and Vonn slid off course and hit a gate before coming to a halt.

The American received medical treatment on the slope for 12 minutes before being taken to the hospital.

The U.S. ski team said it had no immediate information on her condition.

The crash came almost exactly one year before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Vonn returned to the circuit last month after taking an almost month-long break from racing to fully recover from an intestinal illness that put her in a hospital for two days in November.

Vonn trailed Tina Maze of Slovenia, who won gold, by 0.12 seconds shortly before the crash.

The race, which was postponed for 3 1/2 hours because of fog, continued after another 15-minute delay.

Several racers struggled with the conditions.

“It’s not a very difficult course but in some parts you couldn’t see anything,” Fabienne Suter of Switzerland said.