Lindsey Vonn injures back, pulls out of St. Moritz race

She’s targeting a historic season but Lindsey Vonn pulled out of a race in St. Moritz after injuring her back Saturday.

The 33-year-old, who is trying to become the most successful ski racer of all time, hurt her back during her run in Saturday’s super-G in the glitzy Swiss resort.

She made it to the bottom but slumped to the snow after crossing the finishing line and received lengthy treatment at the course.

Vonn later tweeted she had an “acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction. I got compressed on the 6th gate and my back seized up.”

Vonn said she would see how she responded to treatment overnight, but she tweeted again Sunday morning ahead of a second super-G: “Unfortunately I will not be able to race today.

“I am extremely disappointed but my biggest goal this season is the Olympics and I need to take care of myself now so I can be ready for next week, and more importantly, for February.”

READ: Vonn: I won’t be representing US President at Winter Olympics

READ: Vonn goes for gold in memory of her late grandad

Lindsey Vonn hurt her back in a super-G race in St. Moritz.

Vonn finished 24th in Saturday’s race, more than a second behind winner Jasmine Flury of Switzerland, who clinched her first ever World cup podium. Another Swiss Michelle Gisin was 0.1 seconds back, ahead of Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather.

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Updated 9:05 AM EST, Sun December 10, 2017

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Vonn: I won't represent Trump at Winter Games

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Sunday’s super-G was subsequently canceled because of bad weather.

America’s Vonn has suffered a catalogue of injuries over her career and began last season’s World Cup campaign late after breaking her arm in training last December and then suffering associated nerve problems in her hand.

She began this season by failing to qualify for the second run of a giant slalom race in Solden, Austria, and she crashed in the opening downhill in Lake Louise before finishing 12th in a second downhill at the Canadian resort. She fell again in a subsequent super-G at Lake Louise.

Vonn is bidding to break Swede Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup race wins. She trails by nine and is the most decorated women’s ski racer. She is also targeting February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea after missing the defence of her Olympic downhill title in Sochi in 2014 following knee problems.

READ: Glitzy St. Moritz boasts Cresta Run, horseracing on ice and death-defying downhill

The world's greatest female ski racer Lindsey Vonn has officially retired from the sport after her final race at the World Championships in Are. Here's a look back at her glittering career.

She made her Olympic debut at Salt Lake City 2002 as a 17-year-old, finishing 32nd in slalom and sixth in the combined slalom/downhill event.

Lindsey Kildow -- as she was then before marrying fellow skier Thomas Vonn -- won her first World Cup race with victory in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, in 2004.

In 2005, Vonn signed with Red Bull and began working with a completely new coaching team. She seemed set for the start of something special.

Any momentum from the new deal was slowed during the 2006 Olympics in Italy, though. A fall in practice resulted in a short stay in hospital. She recovered in time to compete but could only manage seventh in the Super G and eighth in the downhill events.

However, Vonn quickly bounced back and won the first of three straight World Cup titles in 2008 at the age of 23.

Golden girl Vonn achieved her Olympic dreams in 2010. She won the Olympic downhill gold at Whistler and added bronze in the super-G.

Vonn added a fourth World Cup title in 2012, but is still behind Annemarie Moser-Proell's record of six overall crystal globes.

Vonn's public profile went galactic when she dated star golfer Tiger Woods for two years between 2013 and 2015.

In 2013, Vonn suffered an horrific crash at the World Championships in Austria. She underwent reconstructive knee surgery and began a long road to recovery. She attempted to return a year later, only to pull out of the 2014 Olympics after aggravating the injury again.

Injuries continued to hamper Vonn. She fractured her left knee in February 2016 in a crash during a World Cup super-G race in Soldeu, Andorra, but raced the combined event the next day before calling an end to her season.

Vonn worked hard to get back in time to challenge for gold medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The American left PyeongChang with a bronze medal in the downhill but insisted she was proud to have made it through her injuries.

Vonn announced the current ski World Cup season would be her last. She is already the most successful woman in World Cup history with 82 victories and was chasing down Ingemar Stenmark's overall World Cup record of 86 victories in her sights.

However, a knee injury from a training crash in November meant she couldn't start her season until January. On her debut in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, she was still struggling with knee pain.

After much soul-searching Vonn announced that she will retire from skiing after competing in the World Championships in Are, Sweden in February 2019. "My body is screaming at me to STOP and it's time for me to listen," she said.

In her opening race at the World Championships, Vonn suffered a heavy crash and careered into safety netting. She was eventually able to ski to the bottom and said she would still compete in the downhill to bring the curtain down on her glittering career.

Despite her damaged knees, Vonn was able to retire on a positive note. She battled back to win bronze in the downhill -- becoming the oldest woman to secure a medal at a world championships and the first female racer to medal at six world championships.

The American retired four wins short of equaling Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup wins and the Swedish great (left) was in Are to watch Vonn's final race. "I basically begged him to come here," Vonn said.

Lindsey Vonn: Greatest female skier retires

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‘Represent US’

Earlier this week the two-time Olympic medalist told CNN she would “absolutely not” visit the White House if invited post-Games, but stressed her passion for her country was undiminished.

“Well, I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,” Vonn told CNN’s Alpine Edge.

She added: “I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony.

“I want to represent our country well. I don’t think that ther are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”

St. Moritz, Switzerland: Home of the jet set and one of the Alps' very first winter resorts, glitzy St. Moritz has attracted the glitterati, the uppercrust and the well-moneyed since the 19th century.

Valley views: The ski area spreads up both sides of the lake-filled Engadin valley in eastern Switzerland. The Corviglia sector (pictured) is the main focus below the summit of the Piz Nair, while Corvatsch lies across the valley.

Race pedigree: St. Moritz held the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948 and has hosted five World Championships. It's a regular stop on the World Cup circuit.

Fine dining: Gourmets flock to St. Moritz for its myriad fine-dining options. The lofty Hotel Muottas Muragl on a nearby mountainside offers lunch with a view up the Engadin Valley.

Glittering town: The moneyed clientele demands luxury and St. Moritz is spoilt for five-star options. The venerable Badrutt's Palace Hotel is on many a bling-monger's bucket list.

Frozen fun: The ice-covered lake offers plenty of variations on a winter sports theme, with a prestigious polo tournament every January one of the highlights.

White Turf: The annual White Turf horse races are a mainstay of the social calendar with a variety of events from flat racing and trotting to skijoring, where a skier is towed behind a galloping horse.

How's that?: The lake also doubles as a cricket pitch.

Get in the hole: Golf is also a regular fixture on a makeshift nine-hole course which is created on the ice every year.

Head first: The upmarket town is famous for the Cresta Run, a men-only natural toboggan track which was first built in 1884 and is created from scratch every year.

Thrills and spills: The Cresta Run (pictured in 1904) plunges 157 meters from the town to nearby Celerina, with riders lying head first and steering and braking with rakes on their boots.

Cog railway: A funicular railway whisks skiers out of St. Moritz Dorf into the Corviglia ski area.

Downhill daredevils: The men's downhill race course start is known as the "Free Fall" and is the steepest on the circuit, plunging skiers from 0-90 mph in just six seconds.

World stage: The focus of the ski racing world was on St. Moritz when it hosted the biennial alpine skiing World Championships in 2017.

Light show: A ski slope is lit up on the Corvastch sector above the village of Silvaplana.

Grand style: The Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains is another of St. Moritz's benchmark accommodation options for royalty, celebs and the well-heeled.

Truffle pizza: Renowned St. Moritz restaurateur Reto Mathis of CheCha Restaurant and Club knocks out a signature truffle pizza or beef carpaccio with truffles Robespierre followed by pine tree ice cream and red currant compote.

Local flavor: Engadin nut tart is a classic local dish made from fine, buttery shortcut pastry, caramel and walnuts.

St Moritz, Switzerland ski resort guide

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In St. Moritz Friday, Vonn told reporters: “I was asked my opinion and I gave it.

“I mean, it’s not necessarily my place to be sticking my nose in politics, but as an athlete I do have a voice.”

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On the men’s World Cup circuit, home favourite Alexis Pinturault won Saturday’s giant slalom in Val d’Isere, France, just along the Tarentaise Valley from his native Courchevel.

Pinturault, the Olympic giant slalom bronze medalist, pipped German Stefan Luitz and Austria’s Marcel Hirscher.

Hirscher, the six-time World Cup overall winner and slalom world champion, won Sunday’s slalom in snowy conditions from Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen and Swede Andre Myhrer in Val d’Isere.