Lindsey Vonn’s Crash was a value’s based choice. It wasn’t reckless.
My mom always used to say, “I’d love to be young again but with the wisdom I have now.” When I was a teenager, I rolled my eyes. I actually hated the saying, it sounded illogical. There’s no way to go back in time. And there sure isn’t. But now at 41, I get it. When you are young there’s a kind of fearlessness, a boundless world that says work hard, you’ll achieve. You set the impossible goals and attain the impossible dreams. The older you get, (and this is just by way of observation), the more you have to settle because more responsibilities rest on your shoulders. Dreams seem shadows. We have to choose safety over what some would call reckless craziness.
Yet can we dream another dream or live according to the values we set for ourselves?
A dream aligned life is a fulfilling one.
A values-based life is a hard but fruitful one.
Beyond the philosophy, it’s not something we witness often.
Sometimes we do.
That’s how I feel about what Lindsey Vonn tried to achieve. There’s so much talk around making a decision to ski with a ruptured ACL. I’ve been there too, severed my ACL playing competitive netball (not skiing in the Olympics!) I wasn’t half as fit or strong as Lindsey but I also didn’t need to take pain medication and walked around for two weeks before seeing a surgeon. Lindsey made the decision to ski and as an elite athlete, one who has written history and is one of the most successful female alpine skiers since time began, well it was her decision to make.
It was a values-based decision. She made it to follow her dream. It didn’t end the way she hoped but she did it because she believed in her own decision. She’s 41 years old, so am I. I understand the need to dream deep, even more so when you have achieved feats others can only dream of. Perhaps and more than likely, it was her final Olympic appearance. After Lindsey Vonn’s crash, she shared that she has a complex fractured tibia, and will require multiple surgeries, but she also shared the words that underlined her decision to race.
“Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would. It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairytale, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.
And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.
I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.
I hope if you take away anything from my journey it’s that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself. Because the only failure in life is not trying.
I believe in you, just as you believed in me.”
To be fair, I’ve never been a Lindsey Vonn fan, so none of what I feel or think is connected to a personal agenda. I just no longer confuse caution with wisdom or safety with meaning. I know now that some choices can only be judged by the person who makes them, in the quiet space where values matter more than outcomes (I’m still learning the hard way through the trenches of life). Lindsey Vonn did not stand in that starting gate chasing a fairytale, she stood there honouring the life she chose to live. Falling did not erase the courage it took to start. It confirmed it. This wasn’t recklessness; it was alignment. And if her story leaves us with anything, let it be this, a life defined by fear of falling is far more limiting than one shaped by the bravery to try.
We don’t need perfect endings to live fully, we need the resolve to jump, even when the ground is uncertain or when others cannot understand. This is something sport has taught me, and the athletes who have jumped, ran, fought back, failed, overcome despite the odds, ignore the narratives and live on their own terms is the reason sport is so thrilling. Lindsey Vonn’s crash matters, because ageism is still a reality for women (a conversation that has come up since her fall!) and because couch coaches still think they have a say, when they don’t. We can dream deep no matter age, no matter words and no matter falls. And I’m taking that with me. Wishing Lindsey all the best for her recovery.
