After an uncharacteristic fall on the downhill course in Switzerland this weekend, gold medalist Lindsey Vonn admitted that she’s struggling to regain her energy following intestinal illness earlier this season.
Now, according to the U.S. women’s team head coach Alex Hoedlmoser, the alpine skiing star will clear her schedule for the rest of the 2012 and head home to try to fully recover.
“She’s going home for now,” Hoedlmoser told the Associated Press. “We’ll have to see when she’s ready. It’s a little bit unknown but the plan is to get her back strong... With the way the schedule has been and all the she just hasn’t had a chance to get back to strength. We want her back at full strength.”
Vonn will definitely skip two races in Sweden that she had planned to compete in this week, and will also clear technical races in Austria on Dec. 28-29 off her schedule. Beyond that, Hoedlmoser says the rest of her season will depend on her condition after the new year.
“In January there are plenty of races left for her,” he added. “The goal is to get her back up in shape.”
The break is likely to knock the four-time world champ out of the World Cup running this season. Vonn currently sits in fourth with 414 points - nearly 400 points behind the 799 put up by Tina Maze of Slovenia.
