When Tom Brady played in the NFL well beyond the age of 40, he wasn't considered crazy for facing 300-pound defensive linemen intent on sacking him. Alpine skier Marcel Hirscher wasn't bombarded with pointed questions when he recently returned to ski racing after five seasons away. So why did Lindsey Vonn face so much second-guessing about her comeback at age 40 this season, after spending the same time away from the sport as Hirscher? Before Vonn returned in December, two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister suggested that the American "should see a psychologist," adding, "Does she want to kill herself?" Austrian downhill great Franz Klammer, meanwhile, said Vonn had "gone completely mad."
"I, of course, expected criticism in that, 'Is my knee safe?' That's a valid question," Vonn said Monday when she arrived at the world championships, referring to her reconstructed right knee that's now partially titanium, per the AP. She added, however, that "there were a lot of questions that had to do with me as a person and my psychological state and what life is outside of skiing. And that was completely inappropriate and disrespectful and I didn't deserve it." She noted that "no one asked [Hirscher] those questions. No one asked Marcel if his life is fulfilled outside of ski racing or if he needed to see a psychologist. That was only directed at me. And that's pretty [messed] up."
While Hirscher specializes in the less-dangerous slalom and giant slalom, Vonn races downhill and super-G, where speeds top 80mph. But plenty of men have raced in downhill past the age of 40. And Vonn showed she can still be competitive, including when she finished sixth and fourth in a downhill and a super-G in St. Anton, Austria, last month. She's still rediscovering her speed and has had a few minor falls during her comeback, but she also now has had more time to regain her timing. As for the response to her return back home in the US, Vonn said it was "amazing." "Everyone has been really supportive," she said." It's honestly only in Europe that I've had any sort of criticism." More here.
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